Expert: Russia’s e-commerce exceeds 1 tln rbl in 2017, slows down

MOSCOW, Apr 4 (PRIME) -- The Russian e-commerce market grew 13% to 1.04 trillion rubles in 2017, but growth slowed down as compared to 2016, when it expanded 21%, Alexei Fyodorov, president of the Association of Internet Trade Companies (AITC), told reporters on Wednesday.

But the market demonstrated better dynamics in January–March than in the same period of 2017, and the association hopes the market will reach 1.25 trillion rubles at the end of 2018.

“We did not attain the level we had hoped to reach; we failed to touch 1.15 trillion rubles, even by a narrow margin. The e-commerce market in Russia stopped growing at the same speed it used to do,” Fyodorov said at a news conference.

The AITC explained the slowdown by declining purchasing power of households. “It is a sad trend to my deepest regret. We sincerely hoped for growth of 22–23%,” Fyodorov said.

“In Russia’s total trade of 35 trillion rubles, e-commerce accounts for 1 trillion rubles only. It makes no comparison to what we see in Great Britain, for example, where e-commerce accounts for 18% of total trade,” he said.

(57.5375 rubles – U.S. $1)

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