Europe loses its share in the Russian ecommerce market

The European influence on the Russian ecommerce market is declining rapidly. And it’s losing its share to Chinese companies, as their growth in Russia had been fueled thanks to the devaluation of the ruble. The Russian currency has fallen nearly 40% against the euro this year, so Russian consumers are now even more conscious of price.

And well, if you care so much about the price of products, then you shouldn’t look further. The Chinese can take care of this, with retailers selling products for very low prices. The Moscow Times this week wrote that a report from East-West Digital News shows that about 70 percent of packages shipped to Russian consumers from abroad this year, came from China. This percentage was ‘only’ 40 percent in 2013.

China not dominant in cross-border revenue
So, China is now the absolute number one in regard to the number of packages being shipped to Russian online shoppers. But as their goods are relatively cheap, Chinese player only took 50 percent of total revenues in the cross-border sector this year.

According to EDWN’s chief editor Adrien Henni, many consumers have, although money was their main concern, deliberately turned away from Western retailers, due to the political tensions between Russia and the West.

Russian cross-border market: €4 billion in 2014
Nevertheless, well-known European brands are still doing well on the Russian ecommerce market, says Yako Geronimus from Yandex. Russia’s cross-border ecommerce market expanded from about 2.4 billion euros in 2013 to 4 billion euros this year.