The volume of online sales of physical goods in Russia grew 1.5-fold year-on-year in the first half of 2022 to 2.2 trillion ($27.5 billion at the pre-war exchange rate, or $36.4 at the current one), the Association of Internet Commerce Companies said on August 11, as reported by TASS.

“Total online commerce amounted to 2.3 trillion rubles ($38.1 billion) (an increase of 43% y-o-y) — this was the amount spent by Russians on Russian and foreign online platforms. The domestic market accounts for 2.2 trillion [rubles] from this amount, which is 50% more than in the like period of the last year,” the association said as cited by the Russian state-owned newswire.

The top five categories purchased online include:

electronics and household appliances (22% of the total volume);
furniture and home goods (17.7%);
apparel and footwear (13.9%);
foods (13.5%);
beauty and wellness products (7.5%).

Following the imposition of sanctions and the voluntary withdrawal of hundreds of international brands, Russians have turned to the e-commerce sites to buy now hard-to-find foreign brands. The leading sites, including Wildberries and Ozon, have been setting up parallel imports, sourcing goods from non-participating countries like Turkey, to provide their customers with the international brands.