According to a new publication from Germany-based secondary market research agency yStats.com, “Russia B2C E-Commerce Market 2018”, online retail sales in this country are projected to see a double-digit growth rate through 2022. The product category expected to outpace the overall market growth is online grocery and food delivery E-Commerce.
Russia’s retail E-Commerce sales grow rapidly
Retail E-Commerce sales in Russia have been rising at a compound annual growth rate of above 20% for the past seven years, the yStats.com report shows. Although this growth rate is expected to decline by several percentage points in the period from 2018 to 2022, it is nevertheless projected to be in the double-digits. The room for further expansion remains as only a small percentage of Russia’s retail sales are online as of 2018, compared to more than 10% worldwide.
Online food and grocery segment to outpace overall E-Commerce sales
The largest product category of Russian E-Commerce sales is electronics and appliances, followed by clothing and footwear, according to the online retail statistics cited in the yStats.com report. However, over the forecast period through 2022, retail E-Commerce sales of food and groceries are projected to outpace the rest of the market. The competition in this market segment is already intensifying, as the leading food retailers launch online supermarkets and the top online pure plays venture into the grocery segment.
Top trends in Russian E-Commerce
Cross-border E-Commerce is the top trend in Russia’s online retail market. The share of retail E-Commerce sales contributed by online imports more than doubled from 2011, reaching above one-third in 2017, according to E-Commerce market data contained in the yStats.com report. The vast majority of international online orders are placed on Chinese websites, with Alibaba’s AliExpress.ru generating four times more website traffic than Russia’s largest domestic online retailer Wildberries.ru. The price-sensitive online shoppers in Russia chose digital stores which offer lower prices compared to others, and make more than 50% of their online purchases with product discounts and special offers.
