Yandex Gradually Stops E-Grocery In Paris Due To Poor Performance, London Will Follow

Yandex's Yango Deli service in Paris, will soon be discontinued. (photo: twitter @YangoDeli)

JAKARTA - The internet giant from Russia, Yandex, has now gradually stopped operating its Yango Deli e-grocery service in Paris. This was revealed by a spokesperson for Yandex, on Thursday, March 31. This is due to their poor performance and suggests that a similar exit could also be made from the London market.

The service, which aims to deliver grocery orders within 15 minutes using darkstores - specialized warehouses that only cater to online clients - is also operating in Israel. The service is under a different brand in its main market in Russia.

"Yango Deli is gradually suspending its ultra-fast grocery delivery operations in Paris," said Yango spokesman Delisperson. "This is a pilot project with a small number of dark shops, and it has outperformed our internal targets."

The spokesman also said his unit in London has now come to the attention of others.

"The ultrafast delivery market in London is very competitive and we see considerable interest in our business there, including from partners," the spokesperson said. But he said he could not provide further details.

A source familiar with the matter said discussions about closing the Paris operation, which launched last summer, had been ongoing since early February. The focus of their attention in making the decision is a performance issue.

In London, where services began in the fall of last year, the source said Yango Deli is looking at several new scenarios. One is the possibility of selling the company, to maintain what the team has achieved so far.

The company operates five dark stores in London, with approximately 2.500 SKUs (stock storage units). Customer retention stands at 40%, which Yango Deli says is about 1.5 higher than the market average, according to its own estimates. The London unit is operated locally by Deli International Limited, a British company.

Yandex's Error

Yandex itself is listed on the Nasdaq Exchange and is listed on the Netherlands Stock Exchange. Yandex and its subsidiaries have so far been avoiding Western sanctions that have crippled Russia's access to the global financial system and supply chain.

Former Yandex Deputy CEO Tigran Khudaverdyan quit after the European Union imposed individual sanctions on him. This is something that Yandex finds surprising and interesting to study.

The European Union has criticized Yandex for warning Russian users searching for news about Ukraine in its search engine about unreliable information on the internet.

Meanwhile, the company has flagged that it is short on funds to cover a potential redemption of convertible bonds due to the suspension of trading in its Nasdaq-listed shares. Meanwhile, in early March a data leak exposed private user data on its food delivery app, Yandex.Eda. It was a series of problems that ended up interfering with their performance.