Payment methods

Offering the right payment methods establishes trust and enhances the probability of a purchase. In Russia, there is a lot of distrust regarding online payments, therefore the prefered payment method is cash on delivery. The other popular payment methods are as follows:

69% Cash on Delivery
10% Credit / Debit card
10% Prepaid payment
5% E-Money
4% Card on Delivery

Cultural differences

There is no such thing as the typical Russian customer – the audience in Russia is extremely diverse and covers all ages and education levels, a large range of economic wealth and ideological backgrounds and of course a massive geographical territory. In addition, the russian-speaking audience is even larger as it includes the former Soviet countries in some of which Russian is still commonly spoken. This diversity and division largely characterises the national psyche in Russia and is especially noticable when doing business here: depending on the type of organisation you want to cooperate with, foreigners could be confronted with a modern, international start-up or an old-school soviet bureaucrat. 

Online behaviour

Through its large population and increasing connectedness, Russia is definitly an interesting market for many (online) businesses. One of the largest areas of business is the electronics market, followed by clothing and car parts. While international platforms are becoming more common especially among more internationally oriented, younger users, local platforms are still dominant and should be taken into account when doing online marketing in Russia.