Ebay plans Russia growth with fast delivery amid U.S. sanctions

EBay Inc. plans to expand in Russia, speeding up cross-border delivery and allowing local merchants to sell goods on its website, Vice President Wendy Jones said.

Russia has been and remains "number one priority" for geographical expansion of EBay Marketplaces, Jones told reporters in Moscow today. Recent U.S. sanctions against Russia shouldn't affect the San Jose, California-based company's growth plans in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, she said.

EBay, the world's largest online marketplace, plans to enable Russian merchants to sell goods through the website from September. This should be "a significant growth driver" for sales in the country, Jones said.

The company also signed an agreement with state-run Russian Post to speed delivery, which has been "number one pain point" for local customers, according to Jones. Cooperation will start with faster delivery of EBay parcels from China and goods offered by Russian merchants, the companies said.

EBay doubled its buyer base in Russia last year, Jones said, without disclosing the sales volume for 2013. Russians bought $425 million of goods on EBay in 2012 and are now placing about 90,000 orders each day, she said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ilya Khrennikov in Moscow at ikhrennikovbloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11bloomberg.net Robert Valpuesta, Ville Heiskanen