Drivers of Consumer Choice on Marketplaces for the Russian Population: Cost Savings and Product Diversity

In the context of pervasive digitalization, online platforms are becoming an important element of everyday life—both in terms of frequency of use and the range of reasons for use. Indeed, online platforms today increasingly act as channels of consumption, simplified through the intermediary function on the part of the consumer and the seller. At the same time, affordability and product diversity are not considered in most studies as significant factors in improving the economic situation of households. This study provides an indirect measure of the contribution of marketplaces to consumer welfare based on cost savings and product range expansion. Surveys of the population (N = 3000) and the upper-income group (N = 1000), conducted in 2024 by the National Research University Higher School of Economics as part of the project “Consumption and Economic Behavior of Households”, show that the possibility of saving money is a key factor when choosing a marketplace for the majority of the population. The results of the study show that marketplaces make a significant contribution to household well-being, either by providing opportunities for savings or by better satisfying consumer demand. Both of these consumer behavior patterns indicate that intermediary consumption platforms are becoming an important driver of household welfare improvements and, as a result, have an indirect positive impact on GDP.