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What determines the differentiation in the e-commerce adoption by consumers: evidence from Russia
The paper discusses interregional differentiation in the distribution of electronic purchases among the population in Russia. The empirical base of the study is open regional data collected by statistical agencies and authorized government agencies, which were studied using panel regression methods. The aim of the work is to find out what factors are primarily responsible for the interregional spread in the level of online channel use in consumer retail purchases. The study focuses on regional drivers and barriers for the spread of e-commerce. The results show that shares of users of stationary computers and smartphones, as well as gross regional product per capita are the main positive factors, and lack of trust in e-commerce channels is the main obstacle, whereas Internet infrastructure, age structure, educational level, urbanization, aggregated regional preferences for personal purchases and physical availability of retail trade outlets were found to be irrelevant.