MOSCOW, September 20. /TASS/. China’s AliExpress affiliated with e-commerce holding Alibaba Group opened the first standing showroom at a railway terminal in Moscow, AliExpress Russia and CIS Business Director Mark Zavadsky told TASS on Tuesday.
"We are opening the first showroom in Russia because Russia is among critical markets for us, and it’s largely a pilot market. We are launching a great deal of "pilots" exactly in Russia and then implement them in other countries," Zavadsky said.
The decision to open the showroom was made because many buyers are hesitant to order goods online because they are unable to touch them," Zavadsky said. "We thought we will be able to bring goods of our Chinese sellers closer to Russian buyers with the aid of such showroom," he added.
Goods of 41 Chinese brands will be presented on the offline floor, including clothes, smartphones and other devices. "We selected 41 brands among more than 100 applications and plan to further update the showroom product range subject to seasonal factor and popularity of categories and brands," Zavadsky said.
Goods can be ordered in the showroom using a mobile application or special terminals. The showroom will also have a mobile version, the representative of AliExpress said.