Is Russia’s ecommerce market a stirring giant? [infographic]

When you think of Russia you probably imagine vodka, Moscow and the mob, before thinking European country with the most internet users, and country with arguably the biggest potential for ecommerce growth on the continent. Fair enough, movies and news tend to focus on the former three, rather than the latter two, but it might be high-time to debunk that list, because Russia is an internet giant waking up, and it’s potential is large to ignore.

Russia is an ecommerce market brimming with potential. This infographic aims to paint a picture for foreign ecommerce businesses to benefit from this massive potential. The Russian online shopping landscape is changing and heading in the right direction as it’s creating real opportunities for businesses by adequately adapting to popular trends.

With Russia being Europe’s biggest country and having the continent’s most internet users (more than 60 million), it’s also experiencing a growing middle class with disposable income. As much so that, as the statistics suggest, the country’s ecommerce market will surpass the £20-billion (US$27-billion) mark by 2015.

The infographic further suggests that while a history of distrust in online payment methods and fraudulent ecommerce vendors created obstacles for market expansion, they are becoming less prevalent.

This industry is further stimulated by international brand leaders as the country became a member of the World Trade Organisation in 2012 further opening up trade barriers.

The infographic created by Search Laboratory, further notes that the Russian search engine Yandex accounts for 45% of the nations overall online advertising share and is more preferred than Google.

Search Laboratory is a digital marketing agency that specializes in Pay-Per-Click (PPC), search engine optimisation (SEO), conversion optimisation and website analytics.