E-commerce in Ukraine

E-commerce

E-commerce market

E-commerce is gaining popularity in Ukraine, but it still represents only a small share of total retail sales. In 2017, nine out of ten internet users shopped online at least once. About 13.6 million people visited e-commerce websites and 3.7 million shopped online. On average, each person spent US$ 334 on online purchases that year. The Ukrainian e-commerce market was estimated to be worth around US$ 1.78 billion in 2017,  but no official data was released. If that number is confirmed, that would mean an increase from the estimated US$ 1.37 billion market value in 2016. The preferred payment method in the country is cash on delivery. As for online purchase methods, two thirds of e-commerce visitors use mobile devices to access the Internet, and only 33% of them do it through a computer or laptop.

Social media

The Ukrainian government has been working on breaking with its Soviet past and reorienting itself towards the West. That is why, in 2017, a ban on several Russian-owned internet companies was announced by the government. Two major social media platforms in the country, VKontakte (VK) and Odnoklassniki have been banned as they were said to be a risk to national security, given that they were supposedly used to spread Russian propaganda against Ukraine. Ukraine's internet is classified as 'Partly Free', which means that people could get in trouble for expressing their opinion on social media. There have been cases of social media users being imprisoned for expressing views deemed threatening to Ukraine’s territorial integrity. However, social media are still popular in the country, with almost half of the population using them. As of July 2018, the most popular social media networks in the country by market share were Facebook (40.68%), YouTube (17.26%), Twitter (14.6%), VKontakte (12.86%), Instagram (9.08%) and Pinterest (4.27%).