{"id":7131,"date":"2014-11-24T07:14:41","date_gmt":"2014-11-24T07:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=7131"},"modified":"2018-08-16T13:43:20","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T13:43:20","slug":"e-commerce-in-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/e-commerce-in-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"E-Commerce in Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently had the occasion to have a gift delivered to a person in Russia. That experience drew my attention to the differences in how we deal with electronic purchases in Russia and abroad. I must admit I had forgotten some of the Russian peculiar ways, and new ways have emerged since I left Russia! We have talked about general finance<\/a> on this blog, but I believe e-commerce is a subject that is both culturally interesting and practical.<\/p>\n

Credit Cards<\/h2>\n

First, it must be said that Russia is far from a cash-free society. When I used to teach Russian, my students wouldn’t believe there was any value to the question “\u0412\u044b \u043f\u0440\u0438\u043d\u0438\u043c\u0430<\/span>\u0435\u0442\u0435 \u043a\u0440\u0435\u0434\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u043d\u044b\u0435 \u043a\u0430<\/span>\u0440\u0442\u044b?<\/strong>” (Do you take credit cards?). However, there are still many places in Russia that are cash (\u043d\u0430\u043b\u0438\u0447\u043d\u044b\u0435) only.<\/p>\n

This being said, new methods\u00a0of payment (\u0444\u043e<\/span>\u0440\u043c\u044b \u043e\u043f\u043b\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044b<\/strong>) have emerged in the last 5-10 years. The first of them is a credit card (\u043a\u0440\u0435\u0434\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u043d\u0430\u044f \u043a\u0430<\/span>\u0440\u0442\u0430<\/strong>). First of all, this is a bit of a misnomer, as this is\u00a0usually a debit card (\u0434\u0435\u0431\u0435\u0442\u043e<\/span>\u0432\u0430\u044f \u043a\u0430<\/span>\u0440\u0442\u0430<\/strong> – see wordstress<\/a>). The free card that comes with your bank account is usually a Visa Electron<\/a>\/Maestro<\/a>. A plain Visa\/MasterCard costs extra to issue. In my experience, the identification requirements at the points of sale (\u043f\u0443<\/span>\u043d\u043a\u0442\u044b \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0434\u0430<\/span>\u0436\u0438<\/strong>) are\u00a0fairly stringent, so have your passport (\u043f\u0430<\/span>\u0441\u043f\u043e\u0440\u0442<\/strong>) ready.<\/p>\n

Online Stores\/Shops<\/h2>\n

If you are used to online shopping, you may find that some of you favorite online stores (\u0418\u043d\u0442\u0435\u0440\u043d\u0435<\/span>\u0442-\u043c\u0430\u0433\u0430\u0437\u0438<\/span>\u043d\u044b<\/strong>) do not ship to Russia. Amazon comes to mind, although the UK<\/a>, French<\/a>, and German<\/a> versions may occasionally have sellers that will ship to Russia. However, there are national online shops that have a large selection (\u0431\u043e\u0433\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044b\u0439 \u0430\u0441\u0441\u043e\u0440\u0442\u0438\u043c\u0435<\/span>\u043d\u0442<\/strong>) of goods. Some examples include \u041e\u0437\u043e<\/span>\u043d<\/strong> for several categories of merchandise (ozon.ru<\/a>) and Wildberries<\/a> for clothing and home goods. There are also online grocery stores, \u0423\u0442\u043a\u043e\u043d\u043e\u0441<\/a><\/strong> (literally, platypus) being one of the best-known ones. In addition, many brick-and-mortar stores are now adding delivery options on their websites.<\/p>\n

Payment Methods<\/h2>\n

The payment methods (\u0441\u043f\u043e<\/span>\u0441\u043e\u0431\u044b \u043e\u043f\u043b\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044b<\/strong>) offered on Russian websites may be different to what you are used to. The most pronounced difference is that the workflow is often less integrated than with the likes of Amazon. Instead of \u00a0“one-stop” shopping, you may need to pay for your order through third-party platforms. They may vary depending on the website, but the most common ones include<\/p>\n