Retail and trade
Russian textile production has been in decay over the past years, leading to a substantial drop of over 900 percent in employment rates in this sector by 2020, relative to the 2000 levels. Low production rates contributed to the trade deficit, leading to the highly import-dependent market. While China is Russia's central import partner of apparel, Italy ranks first as an apparel provider of European origin to the country.Since the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19-related crisis boosted e-commerce sales in Russia, leading to online apparel trade growth. Even though overall, Russians like traditional shopping more than online one, a nearly identical average spend was reported via both channels in 2021. Experts believe that a preference for brick-and-mortar shopping among customers will play a decisive role in the offline channel recovery over the post-pandemic period. In terms of average prices per unit, men's apparel has been about 50 percent more expensive compared to that of women's.
