Digital IQ Index®: Russia | Prestige 2013

Key Takeaways

foreign Russia is the eighth largest market for luxury goods half the size of China but twice the size of Brazil Russian tourists continue to gain influence representing 16 percent of Global Tax Refund claims in 2012. second to the Chinese online Russia is reaching a Tipping Point as the percentage of Internet retail sales reaches 2 percent roughly where the U.S was in 2003 before its period of explosive growth as Brands move away from a franchise model and take Direct Control of regional operations understanding the unique mix of platforms and user Behavior becomes increasingly important liquid and cash assets account for a quarter of the money supply in Russia making cash on delivery the preferred method of payment however only 10 percent of Brands offer cash upon delivery for online orders and only one surveyed brand Lacoste is experimenting with the local kiwi payment system Russia is one of five markets worldwide where Google is not the leading search engine homegrown Yandex maintains a 60 market share and dominates search for Cyrillic queries luxury brands are poorly optimized for Cyrillic search switching from Latin to Cyrillic causes one in four Brands to lose their first position in organic search and half fall off the first page search results altogether Russians are among the most socially engaged users on the internet 82 percent participate on at least one social media platform and Russians average 12.8 hours per month two times the worldwide average global social media leader Facebook is second to VK in audience and engagement in Russia yet most luxury Brands still prioritize investment between the two equally future phones still outnumber smartphones by two to one margin in Russia and Android has a 71 percent market share of new device shipments yet most brands are simply porting their legacy content only seven percent of branded apps are in Russian and iOS apps outnumber Android apps nearly five to one this year's genius brands are optimized for Cyrillic offer Market friendly payment and delivery options and engage users on local social platforms and mobile devices in this report L2 examined the digital performance in Russia of 84 luxury Brands adapting the digital IQ methodology for region-specific characteristics observed across site digital marketing social and mobile members can download the full report at L2 thinktank.com foreign