Industry News

In March, sales were fantastic, says Sergey Ivanov, head of Eros sex shops and Lovemachins. He manufactures and sells intimate goods. Most of the outlets in Omsk.

In general, for this industry, the most profitable months are New Year's December and, of course, February and the beginning of March, as businessmen say, the time of gender holidays. This March, sales are up 40% compared to the same month last year. The explanation is this: people realized that soon they would have to stay at home, and stocked up on goods for pastime. When the self-isolation regime began, the entrepreneur had to close offline outlets. Delivery via the Internet did not justify itself.

Sergei Ivanov

head of sex shops "Eros" and the company "Lovemachins"

“People cannot physically walk to the store, because the stores are either closed, or in some cities the self-isolation regime is very strict - you can’t go outside. And in our field, for many it is very important to touch the product with your hands before buying, to see it live. That is, these people are immediately cut off. And for those people who are used to buying online or have finally begun to go online, not all of them have retained their previous incomes, not everyone can now afford to spend some extra money on these goods.”

The businessman works as an individual entrepreneur and is included in the register of small and medium-sized businesses. That is, in theory, he can count on state assistance. He did everything that is necessary for this, but so far he has not received a response. The bank, where he has been served for more than 15 years, refused an interest-free salary loan.

Employees were first sent on paid leave. And then unpaid. Despite the specificity of this industry, it has exactly the same problems as others. Negotiated with landlords. But the provider, without which Internet commerce will stop, unexpectedly did not go forward, says Sergey Ivanov.

“The Internet provider completely unsettled us, categorically refused to make any concessions, said:“ We are not interested in this, we have our own problems, so pay, if you wanted to terminate the contract, you had to notify us about it a month ". That is, people imagine that they probably live in some other country and these problems do not concern them.”

However, others are not so bad. And even well. Dmitry Korobitsyn, CEO of Supplier of Happiness (and this is one of the largest players in the market), says that in March, on the contrary, he had a drawdown. People thought more about buckwheat and toilet paper than about sex products, the businessman reflects. But in April and May, which the Russians spent and are spending at home, sales increased sharply. These are online orders. Apparently, customers got bored, concludes Dmitry Korobitsyn.

Dmitry Korobitsyn

General Director of the company "Supplier of Happiness"

“Many of our colleagues, of course, suffer very seriously from the inability to work and sell. While all online commerce is very active, many people have stayed at home, many need to somehow diversify their time, and we are here as well as possible, as much as possible in demand, as never before.”

To this we can add that sales of contraceptives rose sharply in March. According to Izvestia, if we take the results of the first quarter, interest in condoms has not diminished: an increase of almost a quarter. And not only in Russia - this is a global trend.

With two examples, let's try to sum up the work of our sex toy industry during self-isolation. Someone's sales grew, and then got up. Apparently, as with buckwheat: at first they bought everything, but when they realized that they couldn’t eat so much, they calmed down. But someone, on the contrary, first sales fell, and then rose. Complete variety. Just like in love.