Russia’s population in 2020 was 144.1 million, with more than 30 million online shoppers. In 2021, the total value of Russia’s online retail market reached 25 billion U.S. dollars. Compared with European and Asian countries, Russia’s Internet retail industry is about 5 years behind other countries, and the penetration rate of e-commerce is less than 10%. Therefore, the future growth of Russian e-commerce cannot be underestimated, and its development potential is very considerable.
Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, saw its turnover increase by 93% in 2021 to 844 billion rubles (11.5 billion U.S. dollars) over the same period. Ozon’s GMV of goods exceeded 445 billion rubles (6 billion U.S. dollars) in 2021, ranking second; AliExpress ranked third with a turnover of 306 billion rubles (4.2 billion U.S. dollars).
Consumption characteristics: Russia’s domestic supply chain production ratio is seriously unbalanced, resulting in a large demand for imports of daily consumer goods, including clothing, shoes, electronic products, accessories, etc. Since Russia is located in Siberia, the temperature difference is large, and winter clothing, hats, gloves, aprons, coats, etc. are very popular Japanese products.
Russians are tall and have a large demand for large-size clothing; more than half of online shoppers are between 25 and 35 years old, and more than half are women. The most important factor for Russian consumers to choose online shopping is price, with an average order value of no more than US$30. The second is convenience and delivery speed, product quality, and diversity of choices. The biggest challenge is still Russia’s logistics. Russia has a vast territory, sparsely populated areas, and relatively scattered towns. Some villages are hundreds of thousands of meters away from the nearest city. Insufficient infrastructure has directly led to the delivery of online orders becoming a weak link in Russia’s e-commerce. The time limit for Russian parcels is 20 to 30 days, and delivery of orders in small cities often takes weeks or even months.