“The share of e-commerce in the first quarter of 2021 is 8.7% of the total retail volume.
This indicator remained at the level of last year, but we understand that March 2020 is a time of lockdown and an abnormally sharp increase in sales in e-commerce, so this figure now confirms the interest of customers in the online channel, ”Sokolov explained.
According to him, the current audience of Russian online stores is 60 million people.
“These are those who have made purchases online at least once (2018 - 36.6%, 2019 - 47.4%),” Sokolov said.
At the same time, he added that the patterns of customer behavior that manifested themselves during the period of restrictions in physical retail, introduced due to the pandemic, remain after their abolition.
“According to the forecast of AKIT, by the end of 2021, the total volume of the e-commerce market may increase by 25% compared to last year's indicators - up to 4.017 trillion rubles, of which 3.615 trillion rubles.
(+ 30%) - this is the volume of sales on the local market, 402 billion rubles (-9%) - on the cross-border, ”concluded the head of AKIT.
Earlier, the Central Bank reported that in 2021 the share of non-cash payments in retail trade in Russia could reach 72%, and in 2023 it could grow to 75%.