In the fall, it’s time for sales: buyers are waiting for Black Friday and New Year’s Eve promotions. Stores are launching promotions around the world – this makes the autumn sales attractive to those planning to shop abroad.

However, during sales and holiday seasons, shoppers are often intimidated by delivery problems or excessive workload. In reality, stores have long learned to predict peak load and prepare their infrastructure in advance for the season, and the delivery time is likely to deteriorate by only a few days. Foreign sellers themselves do not lose popularity: 44% of buyers, as before, order goods from abroad.
We will tell you what is happening in the international delivery market today, what factors affect the speed of receiving a parcel and when delivery from abroad will become really convenient.
Types of international transportation
All deliveries from abroad can be divided into commercial and postal ones.
- Commercial logistics services the movement of large volumes of goods between companies or from the manufacturer to the final consumer. This can be any link in the supply chain: from supplying production with raw materials to distributing finished products among large wholesale buyers. Commercial logistics is aimed at optimizing processes and reducing costs. Here, the speed of order fulfillment and flexibility in servicing a variety of customers in different markets are important, given the rather long delivery methods.
- Postal logistics most often focuses on the delivery of individual purchases from online stores. For example, if you ordered a cover in China. In fact, this is not only mail, but also all logistics operators that deliver purchases to individuals in Russia. As a result, the buyer can receive his order both in the post office and in a huge number of pick-up points, checkpoints or even courier delivery.
All transport companies are tied to the geography of large hubs, and delivery can be either by air, road or railway. For example, for delivery by plane, most likely, the parcel will first fly to Moscow or Novosibirsk, and then go to the final buyer.
International logistics development factors
The terms and conditions of delivery from abroad are influenced by international relations, customs procedures and tax legislation, exchange rates, and the stability of supply chains. Marketplaces and stores adapt to the current situation and, depending on it, offer solutions. For example, they optimize supply chains, open warehouses, switch to other modes of transport.
The development of competition also has a huge impact on the market. Each company in the rapidly growing e-commerce market strives to be more convenient and interesting than other players, modernizes and expands its networks, innovates for faster and more reliable delivery.
Who is engaged in international delivery
After 2022, many international companies left the Russian market, and domestic players took the leading positions.
EMS Russian Post, CourierServiceExpress, Major Express, and SDEK remain in high positions.
Business Lines, PEC and DPD hold the leading positions in the commercial logistics segment. But there are also new players, for example, BQB Express. The company appeared in 2011 and was originally engaged in customs clearance. However, in recent years, it has been developing express delivery of goods and cargo from abroad. Today they already have more than 60 branches in different parts of Russia, as well as their own delivery services in China, Turkey and the UAE.
Separately from logistics companies there are marketplaces, whose local infrastructure also includes the processes of storing and transporting goods for local sellers. In Russia, OZON, Wildberries and Yandex.Market are leading in the segment. If we talk about foreign goods and sellers, most of them come from China. The main share of orders falls on marketplaces AliExpress, Ozon Global and Joom. For example, 65% of users continue to buy goods from China on AliExpress.
Despite the rapid development of domestic companies, each has an extensive growth zone. So far, the market is not ready to offer “ideal” delivery of foreign goods. The current offers are either very expensive, or do not suit the consumer in terms of time, or are limited in geography – the company does not deliver from all countries. Here the advantages remain with foreign companies, like Alibaba with the international marketplace AliExpress, which have been developing international logistics for a long time and have their own delivery capacities.
Main directions of online import
In 2024, the share of user orders from China amounted to 98% of the total number of retail orders for online imports. Active trade with China is also conducted at the level of commercial companies and the state – in total, Asian countries account for 70% of Russia’s external trade, and in most transactions from this list, China is the seller.
The media often write about the delay of ships and trains, and consumers are sure that goods from abroad will have to wait almost forever. But in reality, difficulties in commercial logistics practically do not affect the movement of private orders, since they are sent to Russia in different ways.
The main transport routes for commercial transport are by sea, through the ports of Shanghai, Ningbo, and uangzhou. An alternative are railway routes that provide both the delivery of bulky goods, such as industrial machinery and electrical equipment, and consumer goods.
Air routes, including passenger ones, are used for the rapid delivery of small parcels and the transportation of valuable goods. It is in this way that goods from marketplaces and online stores are most often sent to the buyer.
As an example, you can look at the largest foreign marketplace in Russia – AliExpress – and how it copes with loads. For several years now, the company has been switching to more flexible delivery schemes, including air transport. So, a few years ago, AliExpress began to increase the delivery class for its goods in order to speed it up and get rid of untraceable orders. At the moment, the delivery of goods to Russia takes on average about two weeks, and, according to the company, almost 90% of all parcels fly by plane. But this is not the limit – for example, AliExpress has warehouses in China, dedicated specifically for popular goods and located near the departure airports. This development strategy allows to collect and send international orders to any country, including Russia, several times faster. In addition, a flexible logistics scheme helps AliExpress avoid load problems on commercial lines and popular transport hubs, including the sales period and the New Year, since goods can be quickly redistributed on the necessary flights.
How entrepreneurs can organize deliveries from China on their own
The logistics resources possessed by marketplaces, and in particular AliExpress, cannot be compared with the capabilities of independent sellers. But even here the situation is not so bad. Many of the representatives of small and medium-sized businesses are quite capable of independently building a system for the supply of goods from China.
For those who have yet to establish this work, we recommend, first of all, to find a reliable forwarder in China. When choosing a forwarder, it is worth asking the company for portfolios and cases. You can also collect feedback from current customers. It is better to focus on the middle price segment. And as an experiment, so as not to risk large volumes, make a test delivery.
To optimize processes, we also advise you to organize a buffer warehouse in the border zone. Storing goods in close proximity to the border will help reduce delivery times and reduce transportation costs. In addition, the buffer storage can be used to consolidate goods, which will simplify logistics processes.
Prospects for the market for the delivery of goods from abroad
Although the market for delivery from abroad in 2024 still faces challenges, it is considered promising, open to innovation, improving the quality of service, expanding the geography of deliveries.
For international players who are represented in the Russian market, it is important to maintain their presence. To do this, they reduce transit time, expand the network of rental warehouses and create their own ones.
Small but effective changes in supply chains reduce the waiting time for goods. In the case of China, for example, instead of two weeks, delivery to large cities in Russia can take just 7-8 days.

By Georgy Ovsyannikov, an expert in logistics and supply chain