Top of most cashless Russian cities and regions. Cashless transactions in Russia in 4Q20

According to SberIndex lab and IT company Platform OFD estimates, in 4Q2020 the share of non-cash turnover in Russia reached 55.9%, up from 54.1% in 2020, or 4.9 pp more y-o-y (49.2%). This is an all-time high.

The trend towards deceleration in the rate of penetration of non-cash payments was reversed due to changes in consumer preferences during the pandemic. More than one-half of spending (53.1% in 4Q2020) is now done with cards, even in a traditionally “cash” category such as Corner Stores.

Users keep steering away from cash in general, even despite a significant increase in the paper currency in circulation (+RUB2.8 tn to RUB13.4 tn). Nevertheless, the share of non-cash payments slid in the Building and Household Goods category, probably due to people having more paper cash.

In 18 regions, the share of non-cash trade turnover in 4Q2020 exceeded 60%.

For the first time on record, a region was spotted where the share of non-cash turnover reached 70% in 4Q. It’s the Nenets Autonomous District. In the largest cities, the share of non-cash purchases traditionally beat the national metric and reached 56.7%. The leaders are Russia’s northern cities Petrozavodsk (65.9%), Severodvinsk (65.3%), and Syktyvkar (65.3%). In 3Q2020, only fourteen of the country’s largest cities saw the metric top 60%, while in 4Q the number of cities like that reached forty.

Here’s yet another consequence of the pandemic: in 4Q2020 the average order value grew again.