What is stopping online commerce?

The volume of online sales in Russia will grow fivefold by 2020 - up to $ 50 billion, analysts from the venture capital firm Fast Lane Ventures and the consulting company East-West Digital News predict. But despite the fairly rapid growth rates, it will take us decades to reach the current level of the e-commerce market leader - the United States.

According to Fast Lane Ventures, in 2010-2011 the volume of e-commerce in Russia grew by $ 2 billion - to $ 10,5 billion, by 2015 it will increase to $ 23-30 billion. However, this is only 5% of the total retail trade, then as in the USA and Western European countries this figure is now 7-9%, and in the UK it has recently exceeded 10%. In the US, about the same as ours, the level of distribution of sales via the Internet was in 2008, the researchers note. And last year, the volume of online trade in the United States has already reached $ 202 billion.

In market research, Fast Lane Ventures surveyed over 80 analysts and CEOs. In their consolidated opinion, the acceleration of the growth of e-commerce in Russia will be facilitated by the reduction in the cost of delivery and development of the Internet in the country. Low broadband penetration and logistics shortcomings are now the industry's main concerns. In 2011, only 15% of Russia's adult population made purchases online. Logistics and delivery are still challenging in the regions, and large retailers can afford to overcome this barrier with their own logistics facilities and by setting up warehouses and sorting centers.

A study by Fast Lane Ventures says that Russians made 89 million orders of goods last year, of which 45 million were orders from the regions. According to VTsIOM, our online shoppers spent an average of 2011 rubles on online purchases in 3500. Among the factors hindering the growth of this market, experts also name the low level of distribution in the country of non-cash payment methods, with the help of which most transactions are made on the network, and the lack of qualified personnel in the industry. Investment activity is growing rapidly, but examples of payback of projects are rather an exception, and the situation will remain so, at least in the short term, analysts conclude.

Among European countries, Russia in 2011 ranks fifth in terms of Internet sales after Great Britain ($ 80 billion), France ($ 50 billion), Germany ($ 35 billion) and Italy ($ 11 billion). In other European countries, online sales are much lower due to the difficult economic situation in the region, according to Fast Lane Ventures. Analysts at the venture capital firm predict that by 2013 there will be 90 million Internet users in Russia. Earlier, analysts from the Poston Consulting Group calculated that the contribution of the Internet to Russia's GDP in 2010 was 1,9% (835 billion rubles), this figure takes into account not only online sales of goods and services, but also investments in the industry. The newspaper "Moscow News" writes about this.