Named the date of the death of the online trading market in Russia

In 2020, the Russian e-commerce market in the segment of small electronics, as well as clothing and footwear may cease to exist, said Alexey Fyodorov, president of the Association of E-commerce Companies (ACIT), at a recent press conference. The reasons for this are the growth of Chinese sites and (suddenly) the effective work of the Post of Russia. The only thing that can save the Russian e-commerce is the introduction of taxes for foreign online stores, AKIT is sure.



In early September, AKIT summed up the disappointing results of the first half of 2017:



⦁ The number of incoming international parcels increased by 49%. In 2017, the Russians will receive 400 million foreign parcels.

⦁ 90% of purchases in foreign online stores are made in Chinese sites.

⦁ Cross-border trade grew by 34%. In 2017, the share of foreign online commerce in Russia will be almost 40% (420 billion rubles).





ACIT President and Managing Partner of the 220 Volt Online Store Alexey Fedorov.

Who is guilty?

“The Russian state has relied on our foreign competitors and does not want to change anything, looking at the Chinese conquering the Russian market,” Fedorov complained.

For example, in the market of children's clothes, where fitting is not necessary, the situation is “stalemate”. And if Pochta Rossii will open fitting rooms in its branches, then there will be no Russian clothing market at all, the head of AKIT believes. According to Fedorov, Russian online stores will only survive in the segment of food and large household appliances, as it is not profitable to carry a refrigerator from China.



It is curious that one of the culprits of the growth of foreign online commerce in ACIT is called “Russian Post”, which “improved the quality of delivery and provided tracking of goods from AliExpress”.





The share of the Post of Russia in the market of delivery from online stores in 2017 increased from 62% to 67.5%.



Earlier, Fedorov had already predicted the disappearance of Russian Internet commerce, although then the death of e-commerce was scheduled for 2018. There is still one way out of this provision - to charge VAT on foreign companies.

How will save the Russian online shopping?

A package of amendments has been developed providing for the VAT registration of foreign online stores by analogy with the so-called tax on Google. For foreign stores, the tax will be 15.25% of the final price of each item. If the company does not pay tax, the site of the store will be blocked by Roskomnadzor by a court decision.



To implement the innovation, the FAS proposed to introduce VAT on all incoming foreign parcels that are imported into the country. At customs, incoming parcels will be opened to assess their value, which will add to the amount of tax payment for the services of opening and evaluation of the goods. If overseas stores register with the tax and pay VAT, the parcels will not be opened.



According to experts, if foreign trading platforms are registered with the FTS, then the cost of paying the tax will be passed on to buyers. Accordingly, for Russians, the cost of foreign goods will increase by 15.25% . However, the registration of taxpayers at the Federal Tax Service will be de facto impossible, said Alexander Ivanov, President of the National Association of Distance Trading. Alibaba and eBay employ more than 5 million sellers, and they simply cannot register all of their taxes. World experience shows that attempts to collect VAT on overseas parcels are always unprofitable, since the costs of processing these payments far exceed the amount collected, says Ivanov. The introduction of the tax will be a rent, which will make services and technologies less accessible, said Internet ombudsman Dmitry Marinichev.

What do we think about this?

It is not yet known what the final control mechanism for foreign online purchases will look like. It is not known when the bill will be adopted and how soon it will come into force. But we do not build illusions about this. Future restrictions will directly affect the entire industry of mail forwarding. Taking over foreign online stores, the state is unlikely to leave out the attention of intermediaries helping to buy abroad.

What do we recommend?

Do not delay the purchase . Obviously, the state is not interested in the Russians continuing to buy high-quality and cheap goods abroad. And although the date of introduction of VAT is still unknown, next year the threshold for duty-free import of goods will be exactly reduced from € 1,000 to € 500, and a year later - to € 200. So do not delay, get acquainted with the assortment of foreign sites, and make bargains. And to save on shipping from the USA will help you Pochtoy.com . Register with this link , enter the code GEEKTIMES and get $ 7 to your account.