Russian shoppers are turning to grey markets to buy fashion and luxury

June 19: Russian consumers are turning to grey markets for their shopping needs after sanctions have made access to local fashion and luxury labels difficult, if not impossible.

Pic Courtesy: Personal shopper via Pexels

Russian consumers are turning to grey markets for their shopping needs after sanctions have made access to local fashion and luxury labels difficult, if not impossible.

Like China’s daigou – personal shoppers who buy luxury goods abroad and resell them at home with a small markup but do so avoiding the hefty tariffs – a new breed of personal shoppers is catering to Russia’s elites.

Now that most western brands are legally required to halt or limit their Russian operations, international sanctions are affecting local populations access to goods.

Parallel system

An investigation by Panorama lifted the lid on the parallel system which since the pandemic has seen a rise in Chinese personal shoppers at privately held events in Italy where they purchase products from leading fashion and luxury houses, usually at discount. These are then sold back home with markup of 30 percent.

In recent weeks Russian shoppers have joined China’s daigou, with Russia turning a blind eye to parallel imports and third-party sellers. The Federation has waived the need for retailers importing products to have the trademark owner's permission, paving the way for a buoyant grey market.

Wildberries, a multibrand e-commerce platform in Russia, is selling brands including Zara, despite the sancations, reported Reuters. Other Inditex brands, including Pull & Bear and Massimi Dutti were also available on the platform. "We are buying goods that we sell from Wildberries without intermediaries, only directly from producers or official distributors," Wildberries said in a statement to Reuters.

Whether or not these are past seasons collections or certain distributors are continuing to sell to Russian buyers under the table, it would appear the system to acquire goods may be more challenging for Russians, but not altogether impossible.

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Pinterest acquires shopping platform The Yes

Pinterest has acquired The |Yes, an AI-powered shopping service focused on fashion, although terms of the deal were not disclosed. Pinterest has ambitious commercial shopping ambitions

Swati Bhat

Pic Courtesy: Pinterest x The Yes

The Yes was founded by former Stitch Fix COO Julie Bornstein and co-founder, Amit Aggarwal, and is honed on providing users a personalised shopping feed whereby technology 'learns' a user’s style as they shop across hundreds of online fashion platforms and websites. Its AI will fast-track Pinterest’s shopping ambitions and establish a new strategic organisation.

While Pinterest is an image-sharing service and source of discovery, The Yes’s brand relationships and shopping expertise can potentially be applied to other categories on Pinterest such as home, beauty and food.

The acquisition will see Ms Bornstein report to Pinterest’s co-founder and CEO, Ben Silbermann, who will lead shopping vision and strategy across Pinterest. The new management team will create a new and strategic organisation dedicated to Pinterest’s taste-driven shopping efforts to help steer the evolution of features for Pinners and merchants on Pinterest, a press release stated.

“I’ve spent my career at the intersection of shopping, fashion and technology and have seen firsthand the valuable impact of building technology that enables brands to join a platform with ease while enabling customers to share their preferences,” Bornstein said. “Joining forces with Pinterest to broaden our reach utilizing such an inspirational platform is an exciting and ideal next step for our team and technology.”

As a result of the acquisition, The Yes will shut down its app and site and will focus solely on Pinterest.

Ben Silbermann commented: “The Yes team are experts in building an end-to-end shopping experience. They share our vision of making it simple to find the right products that are personalized for you based on your taste and style. We’re very excited about The Yes’s talented team and technology as we build dedicated shopping experiences on Pinterest.

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