Russian consumers in 2024 increased their spending on online orders by over 25%, including shopping on e-marketplaces and paying for services, Kommersant daily reports citing the data by T-Kassa online payment and clearing service.

The growth was mainly secured by Russian regions, where e-commerce showed a 60%-80% increase in turnover. The share of medium and small cities accounts for 76% of all e-commerce orders.

As followed by bne IntelliNews, Russia’s e-commerce market in 2023 increased by 28% year on year and reached a total of about RUB6.4 trillion ($70.3bn).

The report cited by Kommersant does not provide absolute figures on the volume of online sales in general. However, according to preliminary data from the Association of Internet Commerce Companies (AKIT), the total e-commerce GMV in 2024 could exceed RUB9 trillion. Data Insight estimates the market at RUB11 trillion in 2024, up 40% year-on-year.

According to T-Kassa, e-shoppers increased demand across a wide variety of categories, such as sporting goods (47% year-on-year growth), jewellery and flowers (up 38% and 28% respectively).

Taxi and ride orders accounted for about 27% of the total online transactions of citizens. Notably, online payment of non-cash tips accounted for about 26% and the total volume of e-tips increased by 67%. Kommersant reported previously that Russians began to leave tips more often in catering and service establishments. 

T-Kassa expects e-commerce and online services turnover to increase by another 25% in 2025. AKIT believes that the growth of online commerce this year will continue to be propelled by the regions where sellers are actively connecting to the online infrastructure.

However, Infoline-Analytics believes that the growth of the online shopping market will slow down due to shortages of warehouse space faced by large marketplaces. In 2024 the vacancy rate in the warehouse property segment was the lowest in the last five years at 0.8%, with the warehouse deficit expected to persist until 2027.

Even prior to Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, bne IntelliNews reported that the Russian e-commerce space is expected to consolidate around the two to three largest players, similarly to developed markets.

The consolidation intensified in 2022, with Wildberries and Ozon Holdings taking the lead, and some players, such as AliExpress Russia, falling far behind. Both Wildberries and Ozon have strengthened their supply chain capabilities and hunt for large warehouse spaces and logistics hubs.

Wildberries has been rocked by a corporate conflict between the founder and the main shareholder of the company Tatiana Kim (ex-Bakalchuk) and her husband Vladislav Bakalchuk.