Russian Shoppers To Double Ecommerce Spending

Russian shoppers are expected to spend up to $5.1 billion this year on foreign commerce websites, twice as much as they spent in 2013, The Paypers reported on Wednesday (Nov. 19), quoting the Moscow Times and news agency RBC.

The estimate came from the Association of Online Vendors and Enter Vision, the research division of Russian online retailer Enter.ru.

Leading the cross-border trade with Russians is Alibaba’s AliExpress division, which accounts for 35 percent of the business. Coming in second is eBay, with 30 percent of the market, while Amazon claimed 7.5 percent. Among product categories favored in 2014 by Russian customers of foreign etailers, apparel represents 48.8 percent of purchases, followed by accessories at 34.6 percent.

Russians spend an average of just under $60 on each foreign online purchase, although most buyers limit themselves to purchases averaging $32. The Association of Online Vendors forecasts that Russia’s ecommerce market will increase by 20 percent by dollar value in 2015. Last year that market reached $17 billion, up by 30 percent from 2012.

Currently, only about 30 million Russian customers shop online — less than one quarter of the total population.