Russian e-commerce has grown steadily, with the scale of e-commerce increasing by 44.2% year-on-year in the first two months of this year

Data shows that from January to February this year, the size of Russia's e-commerce market increased by 44.2% year-on-year to 431.3 billion rubles. The association said that against the backdrop of intensified competition and Russian companies improving service quality, Russia's domestic e-commerce market continued to grow steadily.

However, Russia's cross-border e-commerce transactions have declined. Data shows that in January this year, Russia's cross-border e-commerce transaction volume fell by 39% year-on-year, and in February it fell by 30% year-on-year. The decline in some categories has even reached 30% to 80%, such as clothing and footwear, electronic products, household appliances and children's products.

Last year, the decline in the cross-border transaction share of e-commerce in the AKIT Association was mainly related to the prevention and control measures implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the decline in the index is due to the strengthening of the Russian e-commerce market and technology, as well as the localization of foreign companies' business.

AKIT said: "Some multinational companies have begun to actively localize their businesses. These companies are willing to invest in establishing mature e-commerce platforms, investing in infrastructure development and creating jobs. In the first two months of 2021, localized cross-border business contributed more than 30 billion rubles to the Russian market. "

Fedor Virin, an expert at Data Insight, a data analysis agency, also confirmed that Russia's cross-border e-commerce transaction volume fell by more than 30% year-on-year last year. Due to the impact of the epidemic, cross-border transactions in the first half of last year were generally not optimistic. However, the situation improved in the second half of last year, and the decline in cross-border transaction volume was lower than in the first half of the year.

There are also different opinions on the impact of the epidemic on Russian e-commerce. Alexander Ivanov, head of the Russian Association of Remote Trade , said that due to epidemic prevention and control and the cold winter, the first two months of this year did not become a "dead season" for the retail industry, and the e-commerce market did grow. He also objected to AKIT's data, believing that the growth was much milder and the impact of the epidemic was exaggerated.

Elena Shutyuk, general manager of IML Logistics , said: "Starting last spring, traditional retailers began to actively develop their own online stores. Now, e-commerce sales have become mainstream." At the same time, like Alexander, she tends to believe that Russian e-commerce this year has not grown as much as last year.

In short, the Russian e-commerce market has great potential. With the construction of logistics infrastructure, the delivery time and logistics costs will be reduced, user services will be improved, and it will become more convenient to get orders from online stores.

Russia