The global pandemic is driving a surge in online trade in Russia. Russian leading ecommerce platforms are generating more and more traffic and online sales. Local producers try to adopt and implement digital strategies to generate online sales.

According to Wildberries, Russian biggest online marketplace, producers from Saint Petersburg have doubled online sales for the year to date. They have increased online sales to RUB 24 billion (+ 74% YTD compared to the same period of 2019). Furthermore, local producers have managed to generate more export sales online because Wildberries is present in Poland, Slovakia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kirghizia. The total number of sellers from Saint Petersburg has also doubled for the year to date. More than 1.700 sellers from Saint Petersburg are now available on Wildberries, 1.500 out of which are exporters.

The most popular products made in Saint Petersburg include cosmetics, books, apparel, children’s apparel, bags, sportswear, board games, hosiery.

The brands that are enjoying rising popularity are:

• Levrana - producer of cosmetics
• Piter - book publisher
• Flyzay - producer of children’s apparel
• Forte - producer of leather goods
• Bona Fide - producer of sportswear
• Neskuchnye Igry - producer of board games
• Mjolk - producer of children’s apparel
• Prime Kraft - producer of sport nutrition
• Hosiery - producer of hosiery.

Producers from Saint Petersburg are also very active on Ozon and Yandex Market, Russian leading online marketplaces. Every marketplace has a pull of service providers that support sellers to sell goods online and develop the online channel. Many Russian sellers are now expanding their sales area and are going on Amazon, eBay and Etsy.