MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/. Russia’s e-commerce market amounted to 498 bln rubles ($8.6 bln) in the first half of this year, a 22% increase year-on-year, Russian Post and the Association of Internet Trade Companies (AITC) said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

AITC expects the market to exceed 1.1 trillion rubles ($19.1 bln) by the end of this year. The segment of cross-border trade increased 34% in the first half of 2017 year-on-year to 178 bln rubles ($3 bln), which means the share of cross-border trade free of tax was 35.7% in 1H 2017. The Association expects the share of cross-border trade to stand at 37% in the total structure of Russia’s e-commerce, amounting to 420 bln rubles ($7.3 bln) in 2017.

The share of Russian Post accounted for 67.5% of the country’s online market in the first half of this year.

"If cross-border trade keeps those growth rates it will squeeze out Russia’s online sales of small appliances and apparel within a couple of years," AITC Alexey Fedorov said Tuesday.

The local online sales of appliances and electronic devices added 11% in the reporting period to 98.9 bln rubles ($1.7 bln), the Association said. "We evidence a huge imbalance between imports and exports," Fedorov said.

The biggest share of foreign goods ordered by Russian customers arrive from China - 90%, followed by the European Union (4%), the United States (2%). In money terms, China accounts for 52%, the EU - for 23%, and the US - for 12%.