According to the research report on online sales in BRICS by Alibaba Research, the number of online shoppers in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries is forecasted to reach 1.35 billion users in 2022, taking up 61% of the global online shopping users.

Of which, online retail sales will increase to USD $30061 million, which will take up 59% of global figure. This shows that close to 60% of online retail sales amount originated from BRICS. Cross-border online retail sales will increase to USD $5536 million, increasing to 41% of the global figures.

Interesting to note, China is the world’s largest online retail market currently, with 4.7 billion online shoppers, reaching 63.8% of the online community for online retail shopping. In 2016, China’s retail sales reached RMB 51556 million (approximately USD $7762 million), with an increase of 26.2% as compared to previous year.

For 2016, the scale China’s cross-border online marketplace (including B2B and online retail) has a year-on-year increase of 25%, increasing from 19.5% of China’s total export figure in 2015 to 24.7% this year.

Furthermore, Russia shows a phenomenal speed of growth in cross-border online retail amongst the 5 BRICS countries. For 2016, the number of Russian online shoppers had exceeded 40 million, and online shoppers hit as much as 41.2%.

In 2016, Russia’s cross-border retail sales have achieved a total sum of USD $43 million, with a 26.5% increase as compared to last year. Russia is evidently a heavy user of online shopping as compared to the other 4 countries.

On the other hand, India is a bustling country with large population figures and many untapped potentials. For the year of 2016, the Indian online community has reached 4.6 million users, surpassing America to be the world’s second-largest online marketplace, just behind China.

For the year of 2009, India’s online retail marketplace was only valued at USD $38 million in 2009, and it has now rapidly exploded to USD $380 million, with an annual increase up to 39%.

58.4% of India’s cross border online sales transactions were completed through smartphones and other mobile devices. Hence, the development of India’s online merchants are thus even more reliant on mobile technology and the widespread adoption of wireless data.

Brazil is Latin America’s largest online market. The number of online shoppers in Brazil has reached 60.5 million, with 43% of the online community adopting online shopping. In 2016, the Brazil consumers has total transactions of USD $43 million on cross-border online marketplace, with an increase of 17% as compared to 2015. Putting aside Asia Pacific region, Latin America is the fastest growing online retail, and Brazil is the largest player in the Latin America region.

On the other hand, online business took off fast in South Africa, despite having a late start. South Africa is one of the more developed countries within Africa region. They have a population of 55 million, 28.58 million users in the online community with a penetration rate up to 52%, only second to Nigeria. In 2016, the scale of online retail in South Africa has grown to 2.33 billion, with an increase of 14.2% from 2015.

According to the report, with the development of Internet services and widespread adoption of smartphones, it brought exponential growth to the five BRICS countries, bringing record opportunities and development for their economy and society. This has become the new growth engine for the BRICS countries in the new age.

The latest research data from Yandex Pay shows that the number of purchases from China by Russian increased by 3.5 times over last summer while the value of transactions with Chinese retailers on Yandex Pay increased by 3.3 times.

In the past year, the number of Russian customers in Chinese e-commerce platforms increased 2.8 times, individual purchases increased by 20%, overall purchases (including wholesale, etc.) increased 3.5 times, and the size of the average individual purchase stayed stable at 579 rubles (US$10)

It is noteworthy that the number of Russian shoppers peaked in July, and they were concentrated in central Russia, the Volga River Basin, and the Federal Southern District. Most paid for purchases with bank cards, cash, or mobile payment apps.

Analysts from Yandex also looked at search results and buying habits and found that the most popular products were gaming controllers, but sales of these products fell off by 70% in August as the summer heat faded. Behind gaming controllers, Xiaomi phones were the second-most common product and were well-received by Russian consumers all summer.

In June, people purchased large numbers of the Mi-5; by July, they were keen on the Note 4. Analysts believe that the main reason for Xiaomi’s popularity was that its stocks in Russia increased and availability was resumed. The third most popular products were earphones, for which the demand was uniformly high and unaffected by season.

With the end of summer approaching, Russian users’s equipment purchases on Taobao have fallen, and they can only rarely find the exact models of graphics cards and other equipment that they seek. After hitting three-digit sales in July, it’s likely that sales of graphics cards will fall by 50% or more in August.

There are 2,397 billionaires in the world, which represents a 3.1% decline in billionaire population in 2016, the first annual decrease since the global financial crisis according to Billionaire Census 2017 by Wealth-X.

The report reveals that 283 individuals (more than 10% of total billionaires) lost their billionaire status in 2016, and 207 new billionaires emerged to join this exclusive wealth tier.

The top 5 countries in the world by the total number of billionaires are the United States, China, Germany, Russia, and the UK.

China has 249 billionaires, a decrease of 4.2%; the total wealth dropped by 0.7% to US$670 billion. And, about 1/3 of Chinese billionaires are under age 50.

Also read: China’s HNWI outbound tourism trends in 2016

Chinese websites accounted for 52% of total cross-border trading e-commerce transactions in Russia in 2016 according to Russia E-Commerce Association.

Transactions of Russia cross-border online trading totaled US$5.1 billion, among which the total online purchases from Chinese online shopping websites were US$2.6 billion. 90% of cross-border delivery packages were from China.

The retail industry in Russia saw decreasing sales in the recent years but its online shopping grew rapidly with a growth rate of 21% reaching 920 billion rubles (US$16 bn) in 2016. It’s estimated to grow by at least 25% and reach 1.2 trillion rubles (US$21 bn) in 2017.

Russia’s light industry is not developed; and, products such as key chain, mobile phone cases, lighting and other large quantities of goods are from China. Smartphones and laptops from Xiaomi, Huawei, and Lenovo have become very popular in Russia.

The most popular e-commerce platform in China among Russian buyers is Alibaba’s AliExpress in 2016, according to Russia’s Independent.

Chinese goods attract Russia consumers only because of the low prices; but, the quality is not high. This may become the obstacle for China’s online shopping platforms to further expand.

Continue to read: Digital marketing focus of advertisers in China in 2017

A total number of more than 60 China’s e-commerce websites entered Russia in 2015 including AliExpress, Jingdong, TradeEase and other start-ups according to Yandex.

Transaction values of Russian online buyers on China’s online platforms through Yandex increased by 30 times in 2015 compared with 2014 and accounted for 57% overseas retail revenues of Yandex which was almost 9.5 times last year’s sales.

A total number of over 1 million packages were sent to Russia during Double 11 and Black Friday shopping season in 2015 according to China Times.

Overall, a total number of payments to China’s online trades through Yandex increased by 38 times and total payment users expanded by three times. Russian online shoppers made about 50 million orders on China online shopping platforms.

Shoppers in Russian Federation central administration region accounted for 34% total Russian consumers on China’s online shopping platforms, followed by Volga region (19%) and Northwest region (14%). Shoppers in the Ural region (9%), North Caucasus (2.6%) and the Far East administrative region (2%) were relatively few.

Russian online shoppers mainly purchased apparel, shoes, children products, mobile phones and the like from China’s e-commerce platforms. Most Russian consumers preferred bank card and Yandex Wallet to pay for orders and 85% buyers on China’s online platforms paid with bank cards and Yandex Wallet.

Convenient global internet environment and improving logistics services were best contributors towards cross-border online shopping market. SF Express expanded its China-Russia delivery services several days ago. Packages could be delivered with 30 kilograms instead of 2 kilograms and could be dispatched in 10 to 15 days.

Also read: China Retail V.S. Online Shopping 2015