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The online shopping rise in China in recent years has now spread to its northern neighbor, Russia.
Maria Chiscakova, a 22-year-old living in western Russia places at least one order via the Internet per month.
"I ordered a mobile phone online, and it's the best I have ever used. The headset my husband bought is also amazing. We are both surprised that it is of high quality and inexpensive at the same time," she said.
Chiscakova began to shop overseas about three years ago at Ali Express, the cross-border online shopping unit of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. After several satisfying orders, she introduced it to her family and friends. Now they have all fallen in love with the online shop.
Shopping online is becoming a popular comsuption habit in Russia.
The competitive quality and price of Chinese goods as well as the great convenience brought by online shopping make Chiscakova and her family and friends loyal customers of the portal.
In fact, boosted by faster cargo trains and more developed logistics systems, Chinese e-commerce companies have seen their sales skyrocketing in Russia in the past few years, contributing to an uptick in trade between the two countries. Meanwhile, as one of China's largest trading partners, Russia is a major source for China to import energy and high-tech products.
An employee places outgoing stock of computer monitor into a shopping cart inside the warehouse of an order fulfillment centre, operated by Ulmart, Russia's largest online retailer.
Over 22 million Russian users logged onto Ali Express in January 2017, making it the most popular e-commerce site in Russia, leaving local counterparts such as Ozon.ru and Eldorado.ru far behind, according to data from Russia's Association of Internet Trade Companies.
Chinese online shopping is beneficial to the overall development of Russia’s e-commerce market, helping select better goods and suppliers for the local market and improving its online shopping service, according to Oxana Belyakova, commercial director of Indigo Lab LLC and official partner of Alibaba Group.
