Russian consumers are increasingly turning to online purchases, with the online grocery delivery market growing by 47% in 2023, according to data from Infoline, as reported by “Vedomosti.” In 2023, Russians spent 917.5 billion rubles on online food orders, a significant increase from the 625 billion rubles in 2022, marking a 47% growth. By the end of the year, interest in delivery decreased, and there was a rise in popularity for self-pickup and bulk purchases.
From October to December 2023, the growth in online sales of food products accelerated to 57%, compared to 55% the previous year.
Marketplaces’ share in the “bulk” delivery segment, scheduled delivery, and self-pickup increased to 56% in 2023. For instance, the share of “Sbermarket” increased to 33%.
According to Data Insight, in 2023, the volume of perishable food delivery amounted to 781 billion rubles, constituting a significant portion of online food delivery.
Geo.Platforma data reveals that 26% of Russians make grocery purchases only through delivery services. However, every fifth person stated that they used delivery services less frequently in 2023.
Matvey Antoshkiv, an online retail specialist, noted that the rapid growth in online purchases was driven by the pandemic, and companies aimed to survive by delivering orders as quickly as possible, typically within 15 minutes. Buyers quickly adapted to this approach, and lengthy deliveries are now perceived as inconvenient. Antoshkiv expects a similar growth trend in 2024, reaching around 1.4 trillion rubles.
Antoshkiv predicts an increase in the popularity of healthy ready-made meal plans and emphasizes that prices are unlikely to decrease as food delivery is not the most profitable business, and increasing costs will be passed on to consumers. Success in this market will depend on companies’ ability to adapt to changing conditions and meet the needs of modern consumers.
He also suggests the possibility of regional services specializing in the delivery of local products becoming more active, especially in sparsely populated areas, where major aggregators cannot cover all territories. The fight for customers in this market continues as the number of delivery service clients has grown eightfold since early 2020, with a third of customers being under 25 years old.
Photo: Kirill Kukhmar / TASS