Russians to spend $20 bn online in 2010

MOSCOW, RUSSIA: Russian consumers will spend 600 billion roubles ($19.49 billion) shopping online this year, a study showed on Tuesday, almost 60 percent more than in 2009 as disposable incomes and Internet penetration grow.

Russia's online retail industry is forecast to exceed 800 billion roubles by 2012, according to a study by Citibank and Google.

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"The dynamics of growth of Internet spend volumes and number of online transactions are far ahead of those of traditional offline retail purchases," the authors of the study said.

The study showed Internet sales kept growing despite a severe economic crisis which prompted Russians to tighten their belts and waive costly purchases.

The study is based upon statistics of Internet purchases made by Citibank clients between January 2008 and September 2010, as well as upon Google's search statistics.