Moscow, 30 September 2024 – X5 Group’s hard discounter retail chain, Chizhik, announces the opening of its 2,000th store. The landmark store was opened in Moscow at 2A Bulatnikovskaya Street.
Chizhik positions itself as a champion of a smart approach to shopping, offering low prices every day on quality products that undergo quality assurance at all stages. The retail chain’s business model maximises cost optimisation, which enables an affordable and high-quality product assortment covering every need.
One of Chizhik’s key features is that its in-store product mix is mostly driven by private labels. The new Chizhik store offers approximately 850 SKUs, including over 500 private label items that are unique to the chain. These products not only undergo continuous quality assurance but are selected based on customer feedback and reviews. The process starts with at least 200 people tasting new products before they hit the shelves, ensuring that Chizhik stores only offer items that have been top-rated by tasters. All suppliers are audited, with Chizhik verifying product formulation and label claims as well as compliance with Russian state standards and other requirements to enforce the strict rule that products must be free of any harmful additives, GMOs, or soy. Before being included in Chizhik’s product mix, a product is thoroughly tested by an independent accredited laboratory.
Chizhik also stands out for its unique Nado Uspet (“Catch the Price”) zone that highlights the best deals in household, kitchen, garden goods, and children’s goods – all in one place. This highly popular selection is rotated every week. In addition, Chizhik is developing its own delivery service, which is already available in large cities and towns including Moscow and the Moscow Region, as well as Voronezh, Vladimir, Volgograd, Perm and Yekaterinburg.
Over the four years since its launch, Chizhik has opened stores in more than 547 cities and towns across 44 regions of Russia. More than 1 million customers shop in the chain’s stores every day. Since the start of 2024, Chizhik has opened 500 stores.
“The opening of our 2,000th store is an important milestone for Chizhik. In just four years, we have transformed from a handful of pilot stores into a nationwide retail chain and have become the creators of a new segment on the Russian market: the modern discounter segment. But although Chizhik has grown, our mission to ‘make quality affordable’ remains unchanged. This means that we do everything we can to offer our customers the best value for their money on the market. The trend towards smart consumption continues, and Chizhik is becoming the champion of the rational approach to shopping. We understand our customers, who don’t want to choose between price and quality but who want to save their money and their time. To that end, we fervently believe in what we do and are proud of the high quality of our own brands. And we’re grateful to the tens of millions of our customers who have placed their trust in us,” said Ilya Yakubson, Managing Director of Chizhik.
Chizhik launched in 2020 with the aim of delivering the best value on the market. According to external research, Chizhik’s net promoter score (NPS) is growing as customers express satisfaction with its pricing, convenient store locations and quality product offerings, keeping Chizhik ahead of most retail chains in perceived price attractiveness.
Chizhik launched six of its own distribution centres (DCs) in 2024, which supply stores with products from over 300 nationwide and local suppliers. The retail chain plans to open three more DCs and at least 400 new stores across its operating regions by year-end.