Online sales of food in Russia January-March grew by more than 40%
Online sales of food in Russia January-March grew by more than 40%, reaching 396 billion rubles. The development of the segment is facilitated by regional expansion of services and increasing consumer confidence. But the high frequency of orders when reducing the average check exacerbates the problem of short deficiency. This stimulates the networks to tighten the delivery rules, investing in expensive automation. Subsequently, market growth may slow down.
Online sales of food products (excluding marketplaces and catering establishments) in January-Mart amounted to 396 billion rubles, increasing by 42% of the year by the year, calculated in the consulting company IBC Real Estate. The number of orders for the first quarter increased by 35%, to 255 million in Infoline recorded an increase in online sales in the food market by 26.8% year by the year, up to 388 billion rubles. Data Insight analysts estimate the growth of 31%, up to 376 billion rubles.
The Association of Internet trade companies (Akit) indicates that, taking into account the catering, the market for online sales of food products for the first quarter increased by 71% year by year, to 530 billion rubles. The X5 Digital turnover (online unit X5) in January-March amounted to 78.2 billion rubles, adding 55.6% a year to the year. The tape recorded the growth of the online segment by 4.2% per year, up to 17 billion rubles. The number of orders increased by 37.4%, to 3.9 million. Metro Russia Marketing Director Alexander Fedosov notes that according to the results of the first quarter of the B2B-selling company, the company in the online channel increased by more than 20% of the year by the year. Wildberries also noted the growth in food sales, but did not bring specific numbers.
The IBC Real Estate note that online foods of food are growing faster than the Internet trade market as a whole. The turnover of the latter in the first quarter increased by 29% of the year, to 2.4 trillion rubles.
The share of food in the overall structure of E-commerce, according to Akit, increased from 16.9% by the results of 2024 to more than 20% in January-March 2025. This is due to the increase in consumer loyalty to services, the expansion of their assortment, according to IBC Real Estate analysts. President Akit Artem Sokolov talks about regional expansion. An important factor in increasing cash turnover is price increases: according to Rosstat, annual food inflation in March amounted to 12.4%.
The share of online sales in the overall structure of the turnover of the food market in January-Mart was 5.6%, increasing by 0.5 percentage points a year by the year, the Infoline notes. But the indicators may vary taking into account the specifics of the networks. Kommersant Kommersant explained that in the first quarter for online sales, 50% revenue accounted. The growth of the indicator has already led to the optimization of offline stores (See “Kommersant” from April 30). Metro estimates the share of the online channel in B2B of more than 25%.
But along with an increase in speed in the online segment, retailers face a decrease in the average check. In the first quarter, it amounted to 1.48 thousand rubles, decreasing by 5% year by the year, they note in Data Insight.
According to the results of the whole year, the value can be reduced to 1.44 thousand rubles. Olga Pashkova, senior analyst in Data Insight, connects the trend with an increase in the share of inexpensive orders with express delivery. Retailers, in contrast to the trend, enter the minimum order cost and tighten the conditions of free delivery. This is necessary due to increasing the load for logistics, the IBC Real Estate study is noted.
Olga Sumishevskaya, partner of the One Story consulting company, explains that retailers are forced to constantly increase the costs of the online segment, increasing employees’ salaries. But there are not enough people, and due to a high load, existing experts cannot physically ensure the delivery of a larger volume of orders. This stimulates the networks to invest in expensive processes. Infoline analytics general, Mikhail Burmistrov, notes that at the same time retailers strive to withdraw delivery to the level of positive EBITDA. So far, not all market participants are able to provide it.
This can slow down the further growth of online sales of products. The market turnover, according to the results of only 2025, will be 1.8 trillion rubles, increasing by 42% of the year, they are waiting for the IBC Real Estate. In 2024, the increase was estimated at 54%. The number of orders can increase by 35%to 1.2 million. Last year, growth was 40%. Although Mr. Burmistrov does not expect a significant slowdown in the development of the market, recalling the low base of the second and third quarters of the last year: then the business faced an increase in expenses and an acute shortage of couriers.
