— Why does Stoloto need its own trading network?
– Firstly, since 2014 all lotteries in Russia belong to the state and are conducted under the supervision of the federal tax service. The organizers of the lotteries are the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation. Stoloto acts as a lottery distributor. Today, state lottery tickets under the Stoloto brand can be purchased at more than 100 thousand points of sale of the largest federal retailers, including Pyaterochka, Magnit, Russian Post and others, in all 85 regions of the country. At the same time, you can earn at 45 thousand Stoloto points. The popularity of state lotteries is constantly growing – by the end of 2021, about 40 million people have bought at least one lottery ticket.
Every year, the number of lottery participants is growing at a rapid pace, with about 40 million people purchasing at least one lottery ticket by the end of 2021. To meet the demand, Stoloto was faced with the task of providing comfortable and modern conditions for users in all regions of the country. Particularly popular offline formats have become retail outlets, Stoloto’s flagship retailer Moscow Lotteries specializing only in lotteries.
— How has the Moscow Lottery evolved in two years?
– Moscow Lotteries is a full-fledged service, not just a place to sell lottery tickets. Here the client can get all the necessary information about the product from a qualified employee, participate in the lottery, win quickly, and in the case of winnings of 15,000 rubles or more, pass the ID required by law. In order to provide a single high standard of service at all our points, we re-established the internal interaction with the employees and paid special attention to personnel training.
We developed our own mobile app to unify and simplify our interaction within the company. In this way, all communication is established and reporting is made. For example, the district manager controls the view in the window in real time, and the employees quickly respond to the tasks assigned to them. All this greatly simplified the training of new employees and control over the operation of the entire network.
The effectiveness of the point largely depends on the staff working there. For this reason, we have restructured the training of our employees, we are constantly organizing webinars. By the way, thanks to such a technological breakthrough in this field, young people today are increasingly finding a job with us.
— What was the impetus for the development of Moscow Lottery outlets?
– We analyzed the situation empirically, breaking into new territory for us, looking for a “formula for success.” I want to clarify here. The fact is that historically the basis of sales were lottery tickets. Participation in them can be accepted by purchasing a ticket for a particular lottery. However, this draw is always held at a specific, predetermined time. Although you have purchased a ticket, you still have to wait for this draw. Also, after an accumulated or guaranteed big super prize draws in sweepstakes lotteries – at first, ticket sales are very slow until a new big super prize accumulates. At the same time, operating costs per point of sale are saved. A new approach had to be found.
We revised our product portfolio and focused on instant lotteries, a product familiar to the older generation of Sportloto, which was popular during the Soviet era. After purchasing such a lottery ticket, you can immediately find out the winnings by erasing the scratch layer on the playing field. But young viewers did not have such an experience. Thus, thanks to instant lotteries, it was possible to introduce the product to the young audience and at the same time solve the problem of operating income. Thus, gradually people began to trust and take a closer look at other lotteries under the Stoloto brand.
Instant lotteries have allowed us to generate operating income that is not tied to draw dates. We even took an old product known to the people of the Soviet generation and offered it to the new generation. Gradually, the more often consumers bought tickets for instant lotteries, the larger the winners in instant games were the owners.
With the right design and customer experience and the expansion of the network, not only the geography of recognition, but also the trust in lotteries expands, resulting in a fivefold increase in the company’s turnover, although a significant part of the network is new and still in a promotional state. More than 90% of new retail outlets meet the planned targets of achieving turnover and payback, which makes it possible to plan the further development of the network, taking into account regional characteristics. We see that not all regions have the same attitude towards lotteries, therefore, a different set of products and formats of retail facilities are provided for each city in order to achieve the planned payback parameters.
Source: Gazeta
