Boom Predicted for Russian e-Commerce

According to Morgan Stanley, Russian e-commerce will triple in volume over the next three years from $12 billion in 2012, to $36 billion by 2015.  As many as 48% of Russian internet shoppers started making online purchases in the last two years, and Internet purchases will make of 4.5% of all retail sales by 2015, estimates Morgan Stanley.  Meanwhile, Russia’s leading internet company Yandex considers the country’s online market has even more potential for growth than Morgan Stanley estimates. “Morgan Stanley only takes into account online sales; in reality the e-commerce market in Russia is much bigger. Retail is only the third most popular online purchase, there are also payments for internet, cell phone services, buying tickets online, games and social networks,” Evgeny Maleev Head of e-commerce, Yandex.Money, told RT. Yandex is set to benefit from this growing trend – as 87% of online consumers use this method to research their purchases, according to Morgan Stanley. According to the Morgan Stanley, however, online retailer Ozon.ru is the absolute leader of the country’s online business. Its revenue jumped 91% in the first half of 2012 to $232 million and is expected to reach $1 billion in 2014. The report also named Avito (online classified ads), KupiVIP and Lamoda (clothes, shoes and accessories), Biglion (collective shopping), Game Insight (mobile games), Wikimart (online retailer) and AnywayAnyday (flight booking) among the major players in the Russian e-market.

http://rt.com/business/news/russia-online-shopping-report-769/