Recently, Russian consumers are going to join grey markets for their needful shopping to local fashion and luxury labels.
Like China’s daigou, personal shoppers who buy luxury goods abroad and resell them at home with a small markup but do so avoiding the hefty tariffs – a new breed of personal shoppers is catering to Russia’s elites.
The most western brands are legally required to halt or limit their Russian operations, international sanctions are affecting local population’s access to goods.
Meanwhile an investigation by Panorama lifted the lid on the parallel system that has seen a rise in Chinese personal shoppers at privately held events in Italy.
There they purchase products from leading fashion and luxury houses, and sold back home with markup of 30 percent.
In recent weeks Russian shoppers have joined China’s daigou, with Russia turning a blind eye to parallel imports and third-party sellers.
The Federation has waived the need for retailers importing products to have the trademark owner’s permission, paving the way for a buoyant grey market.
Wildberries, a multibrand e-commerce platform in Russia said, “We are buying goods that we sell from Wildberries without intermediaries, only directly from producers or official distributors,”
In addition with Zara, Inditex brands, Pull & Bear and Massimi Dutti were also available on the platform.
Whether or not these are past seasons collections or certain distributors are continuing to sell to Russian buyers under the table, it would appear the system to acquire goods may be more challenging for Russians.
