"First, rice, buckwheat, toilet paper ended." Ilya Krasiller (Yandex. Label) about 15 times growth in the pandemic

In 2020, Yandex.Lavka wanted to grow two to three times, and grew by 10-15. The rapid growth forced to change the model and go to a number of compromises - now the service is returning to the roots. About this project "Russian norms!" told the head of Yandex.Lavka Ilya Krasovchik. His interview was included in a special issue dedicated to the anniversary of the beginning of the pandemic.

- I suppose you grew up during the pandemic.

- A little, yes. 10-15 times-some kind of scale. More precisely, I can't say. But this is not important, because we now have a completely different business. In March last year, it was a small thing, experimental.

- Did you start to increase the volumes sharply when the pandemic was officially announced?

- It was the last or penultimate week of March [2020] - the moment of panic, when people began to buy everything. We had 70 shops of all. Everywhere we set the minimum delivery amount at the level of 2–2.5 thousand rubles - and still grew by 40% week by week. Naturally, nothing works, there are no couriers, there are no products ... It seems to you that everything has already bought up, nothing is left. You no longer understand what they buy from you.

- And what did you buy, by the way?

- That's it, in general everything. First, rice, buckwheat, toilet paper ended. Brey [in such situations] what is stored for a long time, and what is scary to lose. It’s scary that toilet paper will end. This will greatly worsen the quality of life. Without the rest, you can live, without toilet paper - scary.

- The philosophical question.

- People are so arranged. In general, all this quickly ended, but [our] growth continued. And at this moment the essence of the service has changed. Until March 2020, we said that we were building delivery in 15 minutes. And suddenly we just needed to deliver - the speed faded into the background. There was no one besides us. Big guys who deliver cars are much more complicated. And we have bicycles. Plus, we connected the delivery by taxi immediately, we expanded the delivery zone.

It is dangerous, of course, to rush in such words, but I will say: we have become a socially important thing. How water should go, so we had to deliver. Then the emergency mode ended - and we returned to the old mission: deliver in 15 minutes. They almost returned-we still have a little left.

- Do you remember what you did specifically when the excitement began? Went to hire more couriers? Open more new Dark Stores? What was the sequence?

- We immediately said: give us money - we open a lot of shops. In any situation, you need to ask for money.

- How much did you ask?

- I won’t say for sure, sorry. Yes, I don't remember. Cool when you do [such things] in a large company.

For money, we probably ran in April. And in March they connected a taxi. This was given to us, firstly, a lot of where to carry [goods]. Then the two things took place at the same time: the demand for delivery was wildly grew, the demand for movement around the city was falling.

- Is this how a temporary measure was considered?

- There was an idea that we should now close Moscow and Petersburg completely. And this [taxi connection] is the most important thing we have done. It would not be possible to open shops very quickly. This delivery method remains, but we do not use it large -scale - it is impossible to deliver superbustrity by a taxi. For this, other technologies are needed - first of all, bicycles, oddly enough.

- Tell me honestly: it turned out to ensure the safety of couriers?

- Full - of course, no. This is impossible. Did it manage to ensure the safety of all people who, in principle, went out into the street? No. Is it possible to reduce the danger? Somehow, of course, it turned out. Now it’s just difficult to remember all this.

For several months we did not leave the house at all. If there were no delivery, it is generally not clear how we would endure it. This was ensured by the work of thousands, tens of thousands of people. Of course, they were in a much more dangerous situation than the rest. Another thing is that mostly young guys worked, and for them it is a less dangerous disease, as we know.

-In the Western press there was a bunch of texts on the topic of digital inequality: while cool white rich people are self-isolated, the poorer and sometimes less whites carry some goods. But this is not even a question, but a remark. What will you do with it ...

“I wouldn’t call it so.” Indeed, we live in a complicated civilization. There are people who ensure its uninterrupted life. In order for this 15 millionth city to function, a lot of people need. Not only couriers. Someone must clean, the sewage system should work. Yes, this is such a situation. Of course, it is not perfect. It is difficult to call her perfect.

- A little harmful question.

- Thank you!

- He has not yet been set. Your couriers are not your employees. Now, if an employee of any city service is ill, he has some guarantees for this case. Your employees most likely do not have them.

-Firstly, there are insurance for couriers.

- How do they work?

-If something happens, insurance begins to work. We follow this.

I perceive this as follows. We make a service for different sides: for buyers, partners and couriers. Our interaction should be convenient and beneficial for everyone. In the case of couriers, this convenience is not only that they can earn money, but also that everything is transparent. If anything, we work in conditions of enormous competition for labor - including the couriers.

At the same time, I definitely do not think that now everything is superdeal and it will always be so. I think that in the coming years the interaction will change very much. Right now we come up with 25 different ways, how to do everything differently, conduct different experiments. You just can't talk about it.

- A less malicious question. We started with the fact that the "shop" grew 10-15 times against the background of pandemia. If there were no pandemia, then what would be the growth?

- I think that two times less or three times. It is difficult to say, because we painted a little bit like this (shows that it is not very accurate. - Approx. The Bell). The fact of the matter is that this is a completely new service. You do not know how he will live, you don’t really know where he is needed, where it is not needed. We have no doubt that our service is needed in Moscow and St. Petersburg. But we do not know anything about other cities yet.

- By the way, you started in Nizhny Novgorod. What results are there?

- Unfortunately, this is difficult to call the results. We made a certain number of errors there when launch, which we are now correcting. It was such a launch ... And let's start the city in the pandemic? And let's! Then we will go a little smarter, I hope.

- And what kind of mistakes?

- We launched few shops - we decided to cover the whole city with a taxi. It turned out that it was impossible - it turned out another service. But if you came in, then you went - let's run. Lost a lot of time.

It is difficult to grow, in short. Structure, team - everything should constantly change. One thing is a service for 5 thousand orders per day, a completely different service is a service for 90 thousand orders per day.

- And how much now, by the way?

- We are near the hundred. It is one thing when you do everything in the same city, another thing is when in four cities. And completely different - when other countries appear. These changes must be caught in time. I know for sure a certain number of things that we did not have time to do last year. For example, I know for sure that it was necessary to open shops faster in some places. I know for sure that there are a certain number of technologies in which we had to invest for a year, and preferably one and a half years earlier.

- What are these technologies?

- I'm talking about the service. We have a courier service actually: technology for couriers. When there were many couriers, we did not notice some problems. But then suddenly there was few of them - when the borders with other countries closed.

- Was that a problem for you?

- A big problem. Autumn was terribly heavy. Two things took place at the same time: a very large increase in orders and a tremendous lack of people. It was necessary to think before, did not follow.

- Happens.

- Unfortunately, the problems were solved primarily by the deterioration of the service. Now he is better, but all these conversations about the fact that “the“ shop ”carries me for a long time,” of course, it was hard to hear, unpleasant. After all, you know that this is true, and you understand who is to blame for this.

- About the lower. There is some kind of understanding how much people in the regions are necessary and can they afford it?

- exactly it is necessary. Everyone needs the opportunity not to go to the store. There are two questions: on what conditions and what exactly is needed? People eat different in different regions. They have a different amount of money. It is difficult to say how the models will converge. An honest answer is this: you have to see. In Nizhny, we have a slightly lubricated experiment, but we still continue there. It will be different with other cities.

- And where else do you want to start?

- I will not say. You will find out very soon. In large cities.

- And the fact that people are falling in people's income in the growth model? They fall, objectively.

- In the model, we do not really lay this - we experience optimism. For us, this is, frankly, premature conversations. In any case, we still grow and grow. It is more important here that many who run [in the same direction]. Every two days you read that some other startup raised the round and goes to win Europe, America, anything.

- And you yourself decided to try in Israel.

- Yes, it was the easiest. There are already a lot of things there. We have a taxi in Israel, there is an office. And Tel Aviv is a big city.

- And he had a hard Lokdown.

- Yes. But we have planned before that

- Are there many shops?

- So far - a little. Three, in my opinion. It is very similar to what was in Moscow in the first few months of the existence of the service.

- And if it goes, where is it next?

- I will not say. Why ask such questions?

- I have to ask.

- And I have to answer no.

- You said that you are optimistic ...

- Certainly. I just told you how we are going to grow, what an endless horizon we have. Then, there are a lot of people around who increase our optimism all the time.

- What are these people?

- Also in Yandex work. They come running and say: “What are you? Well, let's increase optimism! Little optimism, let's still have optimism. ” Caution optimism is a minimum level that we can afford.

Find out more

About how Yandex.lovka was created, Ilya Dewaret told in a big interview the project “Russian Norms!”.