More than a third of online store orders in 2011 were placed in Moscow (33%) and St. Petersburg (5%), 13% in other cities with a population of over a million, 18% in large cities (0.5–1 million people), 2% in small cities (up to 100,000 people), and 30% in medium-sized cities (100,000–500,000), experts from the logistics company SPSR-Express found out after analyzing the statistics of online store order delivery (more than 3 million parcels). In the future, in their opinion, along with the expansion of the delivery geography, the number of orders in cities with a population of less than 500,000 people will grow, which will become the main drivers of online trade development.

For now, Moscow and St. Petersburg account for about 40% of online store buyers, agrees Sergey Rumyantsev, CEO of Enter (part of the Svyaznoy Group and developing e-commerce projects). In monetary terms, the share of these regions is significantly higher - about 60%, he adds. But Rumyantsev also believes that the demand of regional residents will become one of the main reasons for the development of online commerce in the coming years. Small cities lag behind in online shopping for a good reason: the smaller the city, the narrower the range of goods that can be ordered online. Residents of million-plus cities have access to about 70% of the range of Moscow electronics and household appliances stores, and only 30-40% of small ones, Enter analysts calculated.

Sales of household appliances and electronics, the most developed segment of the online trade market, will continue to be so in 2012-2015, according to Rumyantsev. According to Enter, about 10% of the total sales of electronics and household appliances, or about 110 billion rubles, are sold through online stores in Russia. For comparison: in general, online sales last year accounted for only about 2% of the total turnover of non-food retail, which exceeded 10 trillion rubles, Enter calculated.

"I often hear that the market for online electronics and appliances is already saturated, but I categorically disagree: saturation even in the mature segment of household appliances and electronics will occur when the online channel accounts for about 50% of sales," says co-owner of the online hypermarket Wikimart Maxim Faldin. He also has high hopes for online clothing and footwear sales. According to Insales, last year it grew by almost 70% to 34.4 billion rubles.

So far, home improvement and repair goods (about 3.6 billion rubles, or 0.5% of the total market, Enter estimate) and jewelry and watches (1.6 billion rubles, or the same 0.5%) have not sold well online. Strict laws on the sale of precious metals hinder the development of online jewelry sales. According to the current legislation, armed cash-in-transit guards must be provided to deliver jewelry to the client, i.e. each courier must travel with a guard in an armored car, as Olga Aksenova, Sales Director of the Adamas company, gives an example. And most importantly, it is impossible to take jewelry from the store to the client without punching a receipt, and the return of items made of precious metals is prohibited by law, she continues. In such conditions, online business is unprofitable for jewelers, Aksenova concludes.

Online food trade also has bleak prospects – there are many small niche projects now, but for large-scale chains like Utkonos to emerge, very large investments are needed, says Denis Prasolov, managing partner of the online store Pryamo s fermy. The cost of delivering one order to a client is 400–500 rubles. Delivering fresh products with a short shelf life requires special equipment, refrigeration, compliance with sanitary standards, etc., he says. To reduce delivery costs, such a store needs to serve at least 500 clients per day, then the costs will be reduced by optimizing routes, explains Prasolov.

TVs are better than jewelry