What does Ukraine??™s emerging class of consumers need and want in retailer?
Local retailers already know the answer to that question; international entrants that plan to join them must also understand Ukrainians??™ unique needs and behaviors.
In Ukraine people are less brand conscious price sensitive than their western counterparts. They tend to buy their vegetables, fruits, meat and milk from private seller that can sell for less. Ukrainians tend to focus on price more that convenience. As a result, well-known local goods continue to dominate the marketplace, with about 80 percent of all products sold domestically. Local retailers are beginning to recognize the value of the brand, however, and are creating their own advertising campaigns as a result. With more advertising, customers of modern format stores seem to be paying more attention to brands and quality of products. The process is slow, but it does give foreign retailers a foundation from which to begin building the presence.
The Russian network ???Okay??? had finally obtained a legal right to develop its business in Ukraine. Now it aims to apply an aggressive strategy on Ukrainian market. There is no other way out, as it must catch up with Ukrainian strong players. The undisputed leader of Ukrainian market is the network ???Silpo???, holding more than 120 supermarkets. Coming from the same group ???Fozzy???, the network ???Fora??? contains 70 shops. Another network ???Furshet??? consists of 80. This autumn will appear the first supermarket of the ???Okay??? group. The company is going to run 25 supermarkets till 2011. The commercial manager of ???Okay??? Armen Papazyan tells about Ukrainians??™ consumer needs:
???Our company is making research of consumer preferences and already has first results. Ukrainians tend to eat well. ? They prefer pickings, sweet stuff, meat, and fish mostly. An indispensable condition for good sales should be a diversity of choice. Another finding - Ukrainians can??™t live without bred. Surprisingly, but there almost none high-quality bred that would come from the stove to the shops. Most likely, some technological problems exist. We would like to change this??? He also shares his thoughts about the future supermarket strategy: ???We would pay special attention to home goods. Such decision is connected with the current building boom and constant striving of Ukrainians for repairing of their premises. Considering the fact that healthy lifestyle is becoming more and more popular, we are also ready to trade with goods for an active pastime. The general conception is to gather everything that is possible under the single roof. Though, we are not going to compete with particularized shops. They should remain in the category of professionals.??? The purpose of ???Okay??? in Ukraine is to create such atmosphere, that consumer spending his money and time in the shop, would think of coming back to the shop again. This also means that he should find the products to which he is used. The management of ???Okay??? grants for this reason that 30% of total assortment will be supplied by local sellers.