Industry News

Adult stores are moving online en masse. The total volume of the Russian market of intimate goods exceeded 50 billion rubles

Adult goods stores are disappearing en masse from the streets of Russian cities and are moving online. This is reported by the Kommersant newspaper, citing research and industry representatives.

According to 2GIS, over the past two years, every third sex shop in Russian cities with a million population has closed. An almost two-fold drop in the number of outlets was recorded in Kazan, the only growing market is Rostov-on-Don.

At the same time, online sales are now on the rise: Ozon records more than twofold annual growth, AliExpress - 50 percent. Journalist Tatyana Nikonova discusses the reasons for such dynamics.

Tatyana Nikonova

journalist

Why buy online? I think because people, first of all, are very used to buying online. Secondly, it's faster, because after all, people don't have much time. Thirdly, it is psychologically more comfortable, because you don’t have to discuss your sex life and your preferences with a consultant, and if you have to, you can do it in a chat with an online sex shop consultant when he doesn’t see you and never recognizes you. , who is it. And, of course, since purchases from online sex shops come in opaque packages and often couriers do not even know what they are carrying, people have a feeling of complete anonymity, and therefore they are comfortable with it.”

According to Infoline-Analytics, the total volume of the Russian intimate goods market has exceeded 50 billion rubles. The share of online sales experts estimated at 35%.

Vitaly Trubavin, co-founder of one of the largest producers of goods for adults in Russia, the Kuban company Lovetoy, tells about the categories of buyers that have become growth factors.

Vitaly Trubavin

co-founder of Lovetoy

“Our product is still not completely one hundred percent for comfort. He's still a paramedic. We still help people. Depending on age, a person with some deviations develops some pathologies, and he goes to an intimate store, but there is embarrassment, because there you need to specifically contact the seller. Here he can safely choose a product and not show himself. The category of buyers is the lion's share, of course, young people. Young part of the population, middle age. Well, the smaller one is the older age, and these are not only lonely people. Everyone thinks, you know, only single people buy them. No. They buy families, normal families who just want to decorate, somehow thoughts, dreams come true.

According to Statista, the global sex toy market will reach $30 billion by 2020. In Western countries, the use of adult products is almost completely normalized in society. According to some surveys, more than 65% of American women own at least one sex toy.