ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to assess the state and potential of the e - Commerce sector as a driver of economic growth in Russia. The article confirms three research hypotheses: 1) the dynamics of the Russian e-Commerce sector development has its own country specifics;2) the e-Commerce sector development is a factor of economic growth in Russia;3) the period of the Covid 2019 pandemic is the beginning of the intensification of the e-Commerce sector development in Russia. It is revealed that the level of the Russian e-Commerce sector development is significantly behind the dynamics of e-Commerce development in China, United States, Great Britain and Germany, and Russia is not included in the group of countries with fast-growing markets. The contribution of e-Commerce to the Russian economy in 2019 amounted to 2% of GDP, the dominant sectors in the e-Commerce market in Russia are B2C and C2C. Using the methods of correlation, covariance and variance analysis, the authors proved that the e-Commerce development has a significant impact on the dynamics of economic growth in Russia, and stimulating its development will allow for future GDP growth in the country. Analysis of the e-Commerce dynamics in Russia during the Covid 2019 pandemic showed a significant growth of the sector in the first months of the epidemic, which may be the beginning of a new stage in the e-Commerce development in Russia. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.