Sportmaster will launch a new store format in small towns

The Detsky Mir Group, Russia’s largest seller of children’s goods, is developing its Detmir mini format in cities with a population of less than 100 thousand people – now, as the retailer’s press service clarified, 110 outlets operate under this sign.

Since the fall of 2020, the largest domestic seller of electronics and household appliances, the M.Video-Eldorado group, has Eldorado stores with an area of ​​250–500 sq. m, while the standard points under this brand occupy 1-1.5 thousand square meters. m. The new format, the representative of the group explains, is intended mainly for entering small towns – it requires significantly less investment to open, while the omnichannel model of work and access to the full catalog of goods through online terminals, the website and the mobile application allow you to actively increase online audience where such a point appeared. In total, M.Video-Eldorado opened 184 new stores in 2021, 114 of which were small format.

If large non-food retailers do not enter small towns now, they will lose this part of the market, losing to marketplaces, Burmistrov is sure. Sports goods are now one of the priority areas of multi-category online retailers, consumers are already used to receiving goods at pick-up points, so Sportmaster’s decision is logical, as is Detsky Mir’s expansion of the Detmir mini network, the expert concludes.

At the end of 2019, the penetration of online trading in cities with a population of less than 1 million people reached 3.6%, while in million-plus cities this figure was 8.4%, in St. Petersburg – 10.5%, in Moscow – 15 2%, Ozon pointed out in the summer of 2020 in its offering prospectus, referring to INFOLine-Analytics data. She predicted that in 2021, the penetration of online commerce in cities with a population of less than a million should increase to 6.3%.

The data of the consulting company KB Strelka shows that there are opportunities for the emergence of network formats in small towns. In cities with a population of 50-100 thousand people, there were an average of 2.72 grocery stores per 1 thousand inhabitants in 2019, and only 1.44 selling shoes and clothes. In cities with a million population (with the exception of Moscow and St. Petersburg), this ratio is already 4.12 for grocery stores and 2.6 for clothing and footwear. An obstacle to this may be the solvency of the population. The average per capita income in million-plus cities then amounted to 33.1 thousand rubles, in cities with a population of 50-100 thousand people – 23.3 thousand rubles, KB Strelka quoted, citing Rosstat calculations.