Russian e-commerce continues to grow: regions and marketplaces play the key role

Based on the results of 2025, the Russian e-commerce market once again showed steady growth. One of the key drivers was platform entrepreneurship — a business model based on working through online platforms, which today remains one of the most in-demand forms of activity in the digital environment.

This conclusion was reached by experts as part of a joint study conducted by the analytical service “Kontur. Focus” and the RWB agency. The work was dedicated to the dynamics of online commerce and the seller community in Russian regions from March 2024 to March 2026.

The capital retains its leadership, while the regions gain momentum

According to “Kontur. Focus” data, Moscow together with the Moscow Region still ranks first in terms of the number of online trade participants. There are around 130 thousand entrepreneurs here, including individual entrepreneurs and legal entities selling products online. The growth of the capital’s market amounted to 11% — given its already impressive base, this confirms the sustained interest of residents in online business.

However, the regions are showing the most impressive growth rates. The absolute leader in terms of dynamics is the Republic of Dagestan, where the e-commerce segment grew by 66%. The Nizhny Novgorod (+19%) and Rostov (+16%) regions also outpaced Moscow in terms of growth rates.

Sustainable trends: demand, low entry threshold and consolidation of players

As Anton Lomovsky, head of the “Kontur. Focus” project, commented, the current growth of the industry is based on several long-term trends.

• The first is accessibility of entry. Beginner entrepreneurs can launch sales on marketplaces without significant initial investments and without the need to create their own online store, while gaining access to a broad audience.
• The second is market stability. In many regions, the number of new business registrations consistently exceeds the number of closures. At the same time, the share of legal entities is growing, indicating consolidation and increasing market maturity.
• The third and main one is consumer demand. Online shopping has become a familiar part of life for millions of Russians. Marketplaces, in turn, are actively expanding their assortment: today, almost everything can be found on platforms — from food products to building materials. Supply adapts to any request, and this trend will only strengthen.

Seller dynamics: who grew the most

RWB analysts also assessed the dynamics of the number of active sellers on marketplaces.

In Moscow and the Moscow Region, the number of sellers in March 2026 was 28% higher than a year earlier.

The Republic of Dagestan once again demonstrates record figures: the increase in the number of sellers engaged in platform-based activity reached 60% over two years.

In the Nizhny Novgorod Region, growth amounted to 36%, and in the Rostov Region — 34%.

Krasnodar Krai showed a 13% increase in the number of e-commerce participants, while the number of sellers on Wildberries grew by 33% compared with March 2024.
The Sverdlovsk Region added 32%, the Chelyabinsk Region — 31%, and the Novosibirsk Region — 29%.

Two exceptions to the general picture

In the Republic of Tatarstan, a slight decrease in the total number of participants in the e-commerce sector was recorded. However, the number of platform entrepreneurs here grew by 29% over two years.

A similar figure (+29%) was also recorded in Saint Petersburg. At the same time, the overall dynamics of e-commerce in the city were more modest — only +7%.

How it was calculated

The research methodology is based on data from two sources. RWB experts compared the number of registered sellers on the marketplace as of the end of March 2026 with the figures for March 2024. “Kontur. Focus”, in turn, provided data on legal entities and individual entrepreneurs for the same period, selecting companies whose main type of activity was “e-commerce” (the corresponding OKVED code).