T-Bank launched a marketplace and social network in a mobile application

“Shopping” is integrated into the “City” section and offers a variety of 40 partners, including brands such as 12 Storeez, Ekonika, Tom Tailor, Cozy Home, DeLonghi, M.Video and Rive Gauche. Currently, the purchase of goods is carried out on partner sites, but in the future it will be possible to complete it directly in the application. T-Bank plans to make money from a commission, the amount of which has not yet been disclosed. Merchants are promised access to 45 million customers and users are promised cashback and loyalty programs.

In addition to the market, the application offers new “Spheres”: “Home” (payments for housing and communal services, real estate valuation), “Auto” (payment for fuel, contracting services) and “Travel” (purchase of tickets, reservation of tours and excursions). This is part of the company’s strategy to turn the banking application into a tool to solve everyday problems.

Infoline Analytics CEO Mikhail Burmistrov believes that the bank’s projects can create significant value for clients and generate large orders. However, he noted that banks find it difficult to compete with Sber, which offers attractive rates and commission-free instant transfers.

Serguei Semko, lead analyst at Data Insight, emphasized that “Shopping” is reminiscent of a classified ad site where you can compare prices from different sellers. He believes that large marketplaces such as Wildberries and Ozon will not participate in the project, but their sellers can come to the platform. The key challenge for such a project is attracting traffic, Semko added.

The head of the e-commerce council of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Alexey Fedorov, is skeptical of the project. In his opinion, the market is already formed and the new player will simply double the range of existing platforms. At the same time, the head of the human resources department at Evapps, Alexandra Radina, noted that convenience and reliability will be the keys to the success of the application.

Among the challenges for Shopping is high competition with popular super apps like Telegram, whose traffic is much higher, summarized Pavel Podkorytov, co-founder of IT development studio Napoleon.

T-Bank’s plans to launch a marketplace became known in late summer, when T-Gorod CMO Nikita Dmitrievsky posted several vacancies. At the same time, the president of the Federal Society of Network Commerce (FOST), Evgenia Chernitskaya, told Vedomosti that the launch of the service was planned for the fall, in time for the sales season, in order to “start as before”. as powerful as possible.” He also suggested that the market would be presented as part of the traditional T-Bank conference dedicated to e-commerce.