The company JLL conducted a study on the analysis of the representation of foreign and domestic brands in the largest cities of Russia Retail Destination Russia 2019. Within its framework, the presence of 250 international and Russian brands of all segments, with the exception of grocery stores, in 37 cities of Russia with a population of over 500 thousand people was considered.

Traditionally, the list of the cities most saturated with retailers was headed by Moscow – it contains stores of all analyzed brands. It is followed by St. Petersburg (with an indicator of 78% of brands) and Yekaterinburg (62%). The determining factors of the leading position were: a significant population, a high level of purchasing power, the presence of a large number of modern shopping centers.

The 4th place was taken by Krasnodar, which recently became a million-strong city. He managed to occupy a high position thanks to the record saturation of high-quality shopping centers of more than 750 sq. m per 1 thousand inhabitants.

This is followed by Rostov-on-Don, Kazan and Novosibirsk. And although the average salary and, as a result, the purchasing power in them is lower (about 35−40 thousand rubles per month) than in the cities closing the top 10 (40−55 thousand rubles per month), the higher positions are explained by the individual characteristics of these regions. So, in Rostov-on-Don residents spend a significant part of their income on goods and services. The capital of Tatarstan attracts retailers with a high tourist flow, acting as a platform for many world-class sports and cultural events, and Novosibirsk got into the rating because it is the third in terms of population after Moscow and St. Petersburg. Close the list − Samara, Nizhny Novgorod and Ufa.

One of the main drivers of the arrival of brands in the regions is the availability of high-quality shopping centers, and the Russian shopping center market is the largest in Europe - 24 million sq. m.

"In contrast to Western Europe, in Russia there is a mall market model, and it is the sites in shopping centers that bring the main income to retailers," notes Olesya Dzyuba, Head of the Research Department at JLL. It follows from this that the opening of retail facilities is a key driver of the entry of new brands into a particular region. For example, Tyumen has a high level of wages at the same time with a low saturation of shopping centers, and therefore the representation of retailers in this region is relatively weak. The city did not get into the top 10.

For 2019 , almost 1.3 million square meters have been declared in Russia . m of retail space, which is 2.5 times higher than the record low of last year (less than 500 thousand square meters). At the same time, the bulk of the new offer will be formed by relatively small retail facilities.

Source: JLL

Photo: JLL, open sources