The Wacky Ways of Russian eCommerce

It’s a commerce system that almost sounds too strange to believe — were it not being written about in The Economist.

The system in question: Russia’s e-commerce environment, where buyers love to pay for online purchases with cash, and don’t mind placing multiple orders for the same thing.

Russia is home to Europe’s largest online population, The Economist reports, up 14 percent over the year to 53 million users. And that’s with an Internet penetration rate of just 37.1 percent, nearly half that of nearby France and Germany.

And just as the country’s web connectivity infrastructure seems to have not yet matured, its e-commerce ecosystem also has some strange quirks to it. As explained in a recent issue of The Economist:

Russians like to pay in cash. Sometimes they do this at automatic kiosks made by QIWI, another Russian firm… Russians also like to be sure that their goods will turn up—and that they like them—before handing over their money. Sometimes they order from several suppliers and buy from the one that gets there first. Four-fifths of stuff bought from Ozon [a Russian e-commerce firm] is paid for in cash on delivery.

Add in the fact that Russian e-commerce firms are tangibly interconnected with America’s investment community — Russia’s Mail.ru and DST Global own Facebook shares, while Ostrovok and Ozon have Western investors, The Economist notes — and this is certainly a commerce market worth keeping an eye on.

Read the full story here.