Why Russia?

A buyer can get almost everything locally in Russia, if he or she has enough money. But prices here are significantly higher than in the U.S. or Europe, not even mentioning China. Therefore more and more Russians buy over the Internet. Even with shipping fees, they save a lot. Owing to this reason Russian Internet commerce is growing at 40-50% in many segments of the FMCG market.

The Russian online population has increased from 26.1 to 38.5 million between the years 2007 and 2009 (source FOM - Public Opinion Foundation). In addition, 61% of Russian Internet users have ever shopped online.

Why Now?

Russians always preferred to buy online from local stores, primarily because of the following reasons:

• Customs barrier. Import customs duties in Russia are traditionally high. The overall amount of duties, taxes, as well as customs brokerage, handling, storage and other related charges can easily exceed the price of the imported goods, especially for low value items; and
• Language barrier. Russia is a huge country with its own culture, literature, movies, television etc. Many Russians do not speak foreign languages at all or speak only limited English.

This situation started to change rapidly since Russian customs rules for individuals were liberalised in July 2010. The adoption of the new customs rules has created a unique competitive advantage for global online stores as the liberalisation has only affected the so-called personal exemptions - i.e. the total value of merchandise that an individual may bring into Russia or receive from abroad without having to pay customs duties.[1] At the same time companies which import products into Russia for re-sale purpose still have to pay customs duties in full, and therefore Russian online stores cannot offer goods at lower prices than many foreign stores do. The recent changes have eliminated the customs barrier, and opened a unique opportunity for those retailers, who ship to Russia and  are ready to break through the language barrier via either localization or an affiliate store.

Why a Russian Affiliate Store?

Localisation is not an easy thing. Even those online giants, whose websites support several languages, typically refrain from  having a full Russian version on them. Russian SEO has its own specifics, and therefore promotion of Russian Web pages will require a lot of time, knowledge and resources.

The easiest way for a retailer to access the Russian market is to cooperate with a Russian affiliate store. Such affiliate store shall do the required pre-sale (this part of work must be done in the Russian language, which will be much more convenient for  the average Russian buyer) and then redirect the buyer to the merchant's website, only when he or she is ready to complete the purchase.

Five Reasons to Advertise With MyOnlineStore.ru

• We have a deep understanding of the affiliate business from our retailers' angle, and therefore always provide accurate and specific information about each product listed on our website and always update all the required information and links on time.
• We know the Russian market, we speak the Russian language, we possess all necessary skills and expertise required to promote and advertise products in Russia.
• Our work has a consistent positive impact on our retailers' sales results.
• We know local import/customs rules and therefore never promote goods restricted for import into Russia, in order to minimize the number of possible returns.
• Thinking internationally, we understand what you expect from your affiliates wherever they are, therefore you can always rely on us - just like on your internal resource.

MyOnlineStore.ru