Who would have thought that the former "Russian scalpers" are back in the game again!

In the past, "scalpers" carried bags with both hands and made money by walking on two legs; now, they are playing cross-border e-commerce on the Internet.

According to statistics from Russia's largest e-commerce platform, the turnover in the second quarter of this year has reached US$7.43 billion, an increase of up to 70% year-on-year.

Not only is the market size large, but even the market share is far ahead.

In 2023, China accounted for 90% of Russia's e-commerce sales of 313 billion rubles, and 98% of the 174 million orders.

It can be said that the entire Russian e-commerce market is dominated by Chinese merchants.

Why has Russian e-commerce suddenly become a new trend? Have Russians never shopped online in the past decade?

The answer lies in the joint sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union.

Affected by the sanctions, Amazon and AliExpress, Russia's two largest e-commerce platforms, were forced to shut down, and even the ruble was suspended from being used as a currency for transactions.

After the collapse of e-commerce platforms, a large number of European and American brands, as well as Japanese and Korean brands, withdrew from Russia. The supply was completely cut off, resulting in a large gap in commodity supply. Even Coca-Cola had to be imported through transit trade, with prices increasing severalfold.

Therefore, Russia urgently needs Chinese sellers and products to fill the gap in commodity supply.

Against this backdrop, Ozon, a Russian e-commerce platform, began actively recruiting Chinese sellers in 2021, even declaring, "By 2024, we aim to attract 100,000 Chinese sellers and increase the trading volume of Chinese products by 10 times."

Relying on a large number of Chinese sellers, Ozon has officially become Russia's largest e-commerce platform.

It must be said that the current global cross-border e-commerce environment is already very harsh.

The European and American markets are firmly controlled by Amazon, and Chinese sellers risk being banned from the platform if they make any mistakes.

The Southeast Asian market is a loss-making venture, with price wars raging and platforms like Shopee, Lazada, TikTok, and Temu in chaos.

The South American market is vast but distant, and the logistics threshold alone is outrageously high.

The Middle East and Africa are still immature, requiring significant time and effort to cultivate both the market environment and user education.

Looking around, it seems that only Russia offers a promising land for e-commerce entrepreneurs.