Russian e-commerce will triple in volume over the next three years from $12 billion in 2012, to $36 billion by 2015, Morgan Stanley forecasts in a report.

2013 will be a turning point for Russian e-commerce which has been rapidly growing in recent years, according to Kommersant daily, citing the Morgan Stanley study. As many as 48% of Russian internet shoppers started making online purchases in the last two years.

Internet purchases will make up 4.5% of all retail sales by 2015, according Morgan Stanley’s estimates. In 2012 online retail in Russia made up $12 billion and accounted for 1.9 % of the total retail trade in the country ($670bn).

Meanwhile, Russia’s leading internet company Yandex considers the country’s online market has even more potential for growth than Morgan Stanley estimates. 

“Morgan Stanley only takes into account online sales; in reality the e-commerce market in Russia is much bigger. Retail is only the third most popular online purchase, there are also payments for internet, cell phone services, buying tickets online, games and social networks,” Evgeny Maleev Head of e-commerce, Yandex.Money, told RT.

Internet search engine Yandex is set to benefit from this growing trend – as 87% of online consumers use this method to research their purchases, according to Morgan Stanley. Yandex is expected to expand its ads services as advertising companies compete to get their products on shopper’s computer screens. 

According to the Morgan Stanley report online retailer Ozon.ru is the absolute leader of the country’s online business. Its revenue jumped 91% in the first half of 2012 to $232mn and is expected to reach $1bn in 2014. The report also named Avito (online classified ads), KupiVIP and Lamoda (clothes, shoes and accessories), Biglion (collective shopping),), Game Insight (mobile games), Wikimart (online retailer) and AnywayAnyday (flight booking) among the major players in the Russian e-market.

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