Russia

The ecommerce industry in Moscow was worth 174.8 billion Russian rubles, at the moment worth 2.4 billion euros, during the first half year of 2016. This is an increase of 13.4 percent compared to the same period last year. At the end of this half year, Moscow had more than 20,000 online outlets, an increase of 7 percent.

Data Insight and Ruward published the top 100 of biggest online stores in Russia. Number one on the list is Ulmart, with a turnover of almost 510 million euros. The top three is completed by Wildberries (€443 million) and Citilink (€344 million).

Assist Group, a major online payment service provider in Russia, provides online stores with the ability to process MIR cards, the national payment card system in Russia. Some of the acquiring banks are already connected, the rest is at the stage of testing and integration.

The ecommerce growth rate in Russia has decreased significantly in 2015, although the number of online shoppers is growing steadily. In 2014, the B2C ecommerce industry in Russia increased by 31 percent, but the growth rate was just 6.6 percent in 2015.

In April, performance-marketing agency Artics Internet Solutions gave a presentation during the forum RIF+KIB 2016. It was about marketing in the cross-border segment. CEO Alexander Simanovsky talked about the specific nature of the Russian market, as well as the things that are most important to consider when launching a product on the Russian market.

The domestic ecommerce market in Russia increased from 560 billion rubles in 2014 to 650 rubles last year. It now accounts to 2 percent of the total retail industry in Russia, so there is still great growth potential. And while the domestic market is slowing down, cross-border purchases continue to grow rapidly.

In Europe, more and more consumers like to pay using their smartphone or tablet. In share of mobile device owners who already have experience with mobile payments, Turkey is the absolute leader in Europe. This is apparent from the latest report by yStats.com, called "Europe Online Payment Methods: First Half 2015".

Ozon, the popular online retailer from Russia, will begin hosting merchants from both Europe and China. The ecommerce company wants to dive deeper into the booming cross-border trade. If the first steps into this market happen to be a success, Ozon will expand and invest more.

Ecommerce in Europe is mainly being dominated by the United Kingdom, France and Germany, but this may be about to change. Today, Russia is still not that prominent in terms of ecommerce, but it's just a matter of time before Russia will dominate the European ecommerce sector.

Things are going well for KupiVIP.ru. The online shopping club from Russia changed a lot at its website and company, but it has paid off. It began to break-even in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization and it closed last year with a revenue in the fourth quarter that has increased by 44% compared with the same period in 2013.

While Cyber Monday is still more popular in the United States, in Europe retailers increasingly embrace this day to boost their sales. In the UK and Germany there was an increase in conversion in consumer electronics during Cyber Monday last year, while there was a decrease for clothing and footwear in the UK and Spain.

Global investors are looking with increasing interest to the ecommerce industry in Eastern Europe. The growth and trends in this region attracts the attention of international ecommerce players and investors. For example in Turkey, there's a raised interest of investors, mostly in the clothing sectors.

Ozon has raised 108 million euros in funding from holding company Sistema and telecommunications provider MTS. Both parties have invested 75 million dollars (€54mn) in exchange for a 10.8% stake each. Russia's largest ecommerce company is now valuated at about 500 million euros.

The ecommerce market of Eastern Europe may be the smallest of the four European regions, it has seen in fact the biggest growth in terms of percentage. Because with an average growth rate of 35.7% over the year 2012, this ecommerce market was the strongest growing region in Europe that year.

Russia is a remarkable country within Europe. It extends accross the entirety of northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, thereby being a transcontinental country. In terms of ecommerce and other online services, Russia also differs from the most European countries. Let's have a look at ecommerce in Russia with an interesting infographic.