Payments and e-commerce in Russia

E-commerce is booming in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions placed against the country. Ozon, one of Russia’s top e-commerce companies, has posted a 73% increase in revenue for the first half of 2022, but is also suffering a higher level of losses at 19%.

A study carried out by Vox showed that Russian cross border e-commerce suffered a significant drop following the onset of sanctions. Imports dropped from 1.59 m $US daily to 586,300 $US.

The Russian Ministry for Economic Development have stated that Russian cross border e-commerce in April 2022 dropped by 30-35% compared to the same month in 2021.

Russia has been cut off from the international payment system Swift; Mastercard, Visa and American Express no longer process any international payments from Russia, and PayPal have put a halt on all Russian accounts.