Russian online buyers prefer brand name items despite price gouging

Among top 20 Russian stores that lead in online sales are 13 websites which are storefronts of actual offline stores. Their prices are higher than those of full-time online stores, but this does not discourage buyers who are willing to pay a jacked up price for a familiar brand. The retail trade turnover in the Russian segment of the Internet totaled $1.02 billion in 2005 as compared to the national retail turnover of $243 billion that year. This places Russia on a par with the US in terms of the ratio between the volumes of online and in-store sales. The only thing clouding this accomplishment is the fact that Russians mostly order items online and pay for them in cash upon courier delivery. Notably, market participants have offered sharply differing estimates of the market size. While Ozon.ru representatives peg the market at $600 million, Softkey.ru estimates it at $2.6 billion.