Конференция Yandex Food and Retail Day

Business-focused summary (Yandex Food & Retail Day conference)

1) What’s changing in consumer behavior (impacts retail & marketing)

• Online penetration is already mainstream: 60%+ of consumers use online shopping; advertising queries frequently convert to online stores/marketplaces.
• Shopping is context-driven during the day: location + time (work vs home) affects decisions.
• Consumer anxiety around the economy cooled, but pressure remains: people still adapt via cheaper options and tighter budgets.
• Spending strategy shifts:
  • People spend as little as possible and search for savings.
  • Loan/deposit situation still not fully normalized; credit funds are constrained.
  • Disposable income declines, so consumers prioritize basic goods and trade down brands/categories.
  • Resale grows (sell personal items to increase income).
  • Holiday categories shrink in volume even if demand for “treats” still exists.

2) Retail strategy playbooks discussed (frameworks & tactics)

A. Brand attachment via 6 customer-experience forces (IPSOS framework)

• Justice & clarity (fair exchange, predictability, understandability)
• Hygiene (risk reduction; reliability during crises; “nothing disappears” like payment/subscription issues)
• Personalized loyalty (personal relationships, personalized discounts)
• Control (choice, transparent rules, app-based control of savings/points; subscription management clarity)
• Belonging (team identity; enable community/UGC and post-purchase communication)
• Psychological support for employees & customers (training, stability messaging)

B. “Customer-centric approach” personalization (example: Pyaterochka)

• Split audience into 7 personas based on purchase patterns + demographics/keywords.
• Run different promo formats by media consumption strata:
  • shift from broad TV targeting to digital targeting for “digital personas”
• Target promotions using loyalty-data + basket logic:
  • segment by what they buy + complementary goods they buy together
• Prove incrementality with test vs control and alignment on key factors (gender/age/geo/behavior).

C. Category- & region-specific GTM (Yandex research/playbook)

• “Catch the consumer at the right moment”:
  • connect recipe → product → navigational query
• Use local product demand signals (city-level preferences) to guide assortment and promotion.
• Adapt creative and shelf visibility:
  • packaging/design matters especially in cities <700k population (shelf visibility is highlighted as a key factor)
• Adjust promotion mechanics by city type:
  • Moscow/large cities: heavier discount-searching + shift toward cheaper brands
  • Regions: still value assortment availability; waiting tolerance differs by city

3) Concrete examples & case studies mentioned

• Hard discounter era: retailers implement savings via
  • lower prices, reduced assortment, optimized packaging/display, and aggressive discount mechanics.
• Private labels become “not shameful”:
  • treated as legitimate quality + savings; in some categories surpass branded popularity.
• Import substitution / localization:
  • trust varies by category; food is comparatively better received than some other categories.
• X5 example (media platform):
  • built an owned media/recipe-to-commerce funnel: find recipes → then buy products on the platform.
• Pyaterochka targeting case (Regina, Internet Marketing):
  • target “thrifty youth” persona with weekly soft-drink offers (top category items in that persona’s basket)
  • use loyalty program data coverage for audience selection + analyze lift vs control
• Hybrid journey emphasis:
  • 57% hybrid shoppers (buy online + offline), 39% offline-only, 4% online-only
  • Yandex promotes a “chain of communication” spanning offline → online

4) Metrics & KPIs highlighted (sales, marketing effectiveness, and delivery)

Consumer & market KPIs

• 60%+ of consumers buy online (behavior shift).
• GfK online ICOM: 58% in 2022 (share of online grocery/food e-commerce).
• Moscow online share: 76%; regions show strong growth but penetration varies.
• Yandex reach:
  • 80% monthly reach across Russian audiences (Jan figure mentioned)
  • daily interaction: “every second resident” interacts with some Yandex service (as stated)
• Yandex services interaction: user uses ~5 services/month on average (implied)
• Online FMCG/Pharma query growth: +23% YoY (Yandex search)
• Non-food query growth: +26% YoY
• Food queries growth: +20% YoY

E-commerce & funnel KPIs

• Search funnel insight (example given):
  • Sausages: brand queries drop “several times in tens” vs generic category queries—implies widening the funnel improves reach.
• Product visibility mechanics:
  • recipe text is more read than video; video is consumed faster but less effective for search intent than text.

Delivery/service KPIs

• Delivery expectation (optimal time):
  • ~2 hours described as optimal for delivering products (user satisfaction)
  • for some categories, shorter time strongly matters (pharma cited)
• Incrementality & performance:
  • Yandex + client case: offline purchase cost down 32% and online cost down 35%
  • approach: improve ad targeting using offline conversion uploads
• VkusVill performance:
  • online share of peak weekly revenue up to 49%
  • online revenue grew 77% (YoY as stated)
  • online goal described as expanding accessible healthy food

Loyalty KPIs

• Loyalty program influence (round table study):
  • 40% of clients increased loyalty system significance in store choice (Jan 2023 research claim)
• Pyaterochka scale:
  • ~14 million customers/day attendance (stated)
  • app usage growth: ~50% (YoY as stated)
  • promotion participants using the mobile app: ~20% (stated)
• Magnit loyalty:
  • active segment described as 68 million loyalty members
  • active clients up by +5 percentage points (monthly active claim submission)

5) Actionable recommendations (what to do next)

• Build brand attachment beyond price:
  • ensure justice/clarity/predictability
  • add personalized loyalty and control
  • create belonging via post-purchase community and response loops
• Segment and message by media + persona, not only by category:
  • Pyaterochka split promos based on persona and TV/digital strata
• Use hybrid journey measurement:
  • upload offline conversions to improve ad targeting and reduce CPA (example: -32% offline, -35% online)
• Widen the funnel:
  • don’t rely only on brand-searchers; target category intent queries and recipe-to-product routes
• Regionize assortment & packaging strategy:
  • shelf visibility and design requirements differ by city size
• Delivery strategy should match operational model:
  • own delivery tends to be viable for networks with sufficient order density and margins
  • aggregators are often the starting point when scale/tech investment is hard—then optimize based on economics and unit economics

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High-level views on delivery & channel mix (execution focus)

• Delivery growth is framed as a long-term adoption curve (like taxi’s evolution).
• Aggregators can scale fast but depend on technology + investment; retailers/brands should still ensure:
  • assortment availability
  • delivery-time reliability
  • defect rate reduction (fewer late/damaged deliveries → improved NPS)
• Hybrid retail is expected to persist:
  • offline offers experience, convenience, sensory validation
  • online offers speed and choice
• “Click & collect / pick-up” and hybrid formats are positioned as practical bridges rather than replacements of physical stores.

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Presenters / sources mentioned

• Anna Lebedeva (Executive Director, associations marketing in retail)
• Evgeny Sokolov (Director, Yandex e-commerce; working with large clients in Yandex advertising)
• Anna Uvarova (Development Director, Ipsos)
• Victoria Luzgina (Business partners, Yandex Food Retail industry)
• Regina (Head of Department, Internet Marketing, Pyaterochka)
• Evgeny Shchepina (Moderator; VkusVil project practitioner; author)
• Galina (Marketing Director, Auchan)
• Yuri Pavlov (Director, Department of Digital Technologies, holding company Guta)
• Lyudmila Pod’yapolskaya (Director, Department of Value Management, buyers’ customer experience, Magnit network)
• Vartan Swarovski (Head of development, convenience store category, Danone hypermarkets)
• Mikhail Garkunov (Senior Key Account Development Manager, Yandex Food Retail industry clients)
• Natalia (VkusVill online leader; presenter at VkusVill session)
• Igor Zatonsky (Development Director, business and operations, prok.ru / (Prok))
• Denis Marfutin (Division Director, e-commerce, Metro Russia)
• Elena Ivanova (Market expert; ex Vice President of Sales and Marketing, SberMarket)
• Yury Sapozhnikov (Moderator, Telegram channel from commerce to commerce; ex marketing, Sbermarket)
• Evgeny Onishchenkov (Head of Retail, Yandex Food and Delivery Club directions)

(Plus multiple named/credited organizations used in discussion: Yandex, Ipsos, Pyaterochka, Magnit, Auchan, Metro, SberMarket/Sbermarket, X5, Guta, Danone, VkusVill, GfK, MediaScope, Infolines, DC/Delivery aggregators, and Yandex services such as Maps/Direct/Alice/KinoPoisk.)