Retail and trade
In 2020, the pandemic contributed to major shifts in online shopping habits and preferences of Russian e-shoppers. While fashion items accounted for the most substantial online sales share, e-groceries experienced a never-before-seen sales countrywide, with sbermarket.ru as the fastest growing food retailer on the Russian internet. The lockdown period and restricted offline retail lead online stores to more exposure, thus developing the habit of researching a product on the internet before major purchases among the customers. More often than not, Russian online shoppers were revealed to be bargain hunters, usually spending between two and four thousand Russian rubles per order.Positively developing Russian e-commerce exports recording an upswing in 2020, marking the historic high levels with over a billion U.S. dollars in revenues. The largest turnover share from online exports came from Belarus in 2020, even though Russian online exporters’ principal target region was the United States.