Russia

The ecommerce industry in Eastern Europe is expected to reach 23 billion euros worth of sales in 2014. In absolute numbers, this region may not be top notch, but when we consider the average growth rate of 47% over the year 2013, the ecommerce market in Eastern Europe is showing the strongest increase in Europe.

The B2C ecommerce industry in Russia has been growing rapidly. As a matter of fact, it was ranked fifth worldwide in ecommerce growth last year. Russia is now forecasted to surpass South Korea to become the ninth largest ecommerce market worldwide. And in 2018, the industry could be worth 30 billion euros.

It looks Ulmart has found the ideal model for operating an ecommerce business in Russia. The 31% growth of sales for the first six months of 2014 in a year-on-year comparison are proof of that. Sequential quarterly growth even increased by 47%. Ulmart showed to be a disruptive player in the Russian ecommerce with its 'web of fullfilment'.

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 online retail industry in Russia was worth 9.41 billion euros in 2013, which corresponds to a 34% increase on 2012. According to recent research, this growth will continue, taking the annual ecommerce revenue in Russia to more than 20.34 billion euros by 2016.

Russian consumer electronics chain M.video wants to grab more market share and in order to achieve this the retailer plans to bring its prices into line with rivals like Ulmart. “Only the price factor can still potentially limit shopping with us, so we will take this issue off the table," says M.video’s CEO Alexander Tynkovan.

More Russian consumers are shopping online, but still the lion’s share of payments happen with cash. But that may be something of the past soon, as electronic wallets are gaining some serious ground in the Russian ecommerce industry. And this of course will help drive the growth of online retail in Russia.

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.

The authorities in Russia have recently made some changes in the customs procedures which will impact shipments sent to private individuals in Russia. The new rules require formal entry on all dutiable import shipments intended for personal use, regardless of the shipment value. Because of this, online stores from abroad might sell less in Russia than before.

When you want your online store to succeed in Russia, you surely want it to be shown in search engine results pages. You ought to think Google is your search engine of choice, but when it's about the Russian market, think again. It's Yandex that's the dominant search engine in this country. Check the infographic to see what Yandex can offer you!

Russia has an increasingly wealthy and Internet-savvy population of some 143 million, but ecommerce is not that big at the moment. But that could change very soon, as different international ecommerce gigants like eBay, Alibaba and Asos are expanding their presence.

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.

Annual growth of ecommerce sales in Eastern Europe outpaced that of Western Europe by 13 percentage points in 2012. For this current year a double digit growth above 20% is expected, although this growth is likely to decrease by 2017. But although Eastern Europe grows faster than Western Europe, the latter is still the one accounting for most of ecommerce sales in the whole of Europe.

Otto Group will invest 50 million euros in its order fulfillment and parcel delivery infrastructure in Russia. The German company will also open its network to third-party retailers. With the investment the capacity of Otto’s logistics center will be doubled, creating almost 700 extra jobs by 2014.