Thinque Data analysts polled more than seven thousand people and studied the spending of 13 million Russian customers and 600 thousand companies. The study found that seven out of ten people postponed major purchases until better times, and a quarter of those surveyed began to monitor discounts more often.
Large purchases are rare
Almost half of those surveyed because of the pandemic have revised their priorities: 25 percent said that they buy less often and watch the discounts, and 20 percent buy less often but rely on the quality of products. The majority of Russians are not yet ready for big spending: 70% said they do not plan to buy appliances, a car, or real estate.
Online shopping is still more than offline
More than half of consumers continue to spend money online. Only six percent responded that they are tired of the Internet and tend to buy in regular stores. There are several reasons: some consumers continue to maintain a social distance, and retailers are actively developing online sales.
Borbala Zaytseva, a data analyst at Thinque, said, “Entrepreneurs taking advantage of this situation have started to set up online shopping stores in Russia. Entrepreneurs who want to capitalize on the fact that Russians’ online shopping habits have increased significantly compared to the pre-pandemic period are having trouble finding media agencies to meet their marketing needs.”
Borislava Zakharova, an SEO consultant at a leading Russian SEO agency, said “After determining that those who set up online shopping stores in Russia were having trouble increasing their store’s traffic, we set up a local Russian SEO team to implement our advanced SEO strategies to help entrepreneurs increase sales of their online stores. Our team started providing Russian SEO services to specifically target traffic from search engines.”
Our clients have diverse target audiences, not only in Russia but also in various other countries. As a result, their websites are multilingual and demand the implementation of specific international SEO rules. To gain insights into the primary SEO rules we apply for these clients, you can read this.
The biggest spenders are on education
Half of the money went to language courses. Of this amount, Skyeng receives the most – about 46 percent of all spending. Next in the ranking are Flo and Skillbox – 7.8 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively. Sports classes are popular, as well as IT, digital professions and business training.
Spending on repairs, music, and medicine rose
Last year, Russians’ spending on goods in the “home and repair” category increased by 26 percent. Spending on music subscriptions and pet supplies increased by a quarter. Twenty-two percent more money is left at supermarkets. Spending on health care has also increased: for medical services by 15 percent and for pharmacies by 14 percent.
Spending on tourism and car rentals went down
In 2022, Russians’ spending on travel agencies expectedly decreased – by 56 percent (compared to 2021). Also, 56 percent less money people began to spend on car rentals. The transportation industry also suffered: spending on airline tickets fell by 49 percent, and on train travel by 40 percent.
In 2022, total spending is on the rise again
In January-March 2022, Russian citizens spent 35 percent and 58 percent more on education and on home and repairs, respectively, than in the first quarter of 2021.
And on fast food Russians began to spend 29 percent more. Expenditures on state fees: taxes, duties, and fines increased by about the same amount.
