Nova Poshta employees pack goods into boxes outside Kyiv on April 8, 2020. This charity project, the work of Nova Poshta, Rozetka and the NGO Zhyzneluby delivers critical food supplies to needy populations. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)

Online commerce has grown amid the COVID-19 pandemic and with Ukraine now in its sixth week of quarantine measures it’s no different here. The online shopping and classified adverts website OLX (similar to Ebay) has seen a big increase in users and sales. In March, Ukrainians were much more interested in buying household chemicals and fitness products, the company told online outlet AIN.ua. 

OLX workers switched to remote working as they moved to keep up with increased consumer demand, Igor Syrovatko, head of the company’s customer service said. “For us, perhaps this transition was easier than other companies, since e-commerce was initially set up to work online,” he said, noting that sales of household cleaning products had skyrocketed by 365%. 

The e-commerce website also noted that bicycle sales were up by 70% while sales of other fitness products, as well as food and drink sales, all doubled. Some shopping websites and online providers of entertainment have emerged as the clear winners of the COVID-19 pandemic, with sites like Amazon, Netflix and Shopify increasing their user base, share price values and incomes, despite the ongoing market volatility.

Rozetka, another e-commerce website in Ukraine that’s like Amazon, has reported similar sales growth. Amid a number of weeks in March and April that were marked by forest fires and bad weather that resulted in abysmal air quality in Ukraine and its capital Kyiv, the company said it saw a 1400% increase in the sale of air purifiers. “In March 2020, the surge in consumer activity was almost 2.5 times lower, but sales growth in the category of air purifiers increased by 600% compared to the same period in 2019,” the company told AIN.ua. 

But growth of retail turnover in Ukraine slowed to 6.1% in March, statistics also show, with high street retail crippled by lockdown measures that have closed shops except grocery stores and pharmacies. Year-over-year in comparable prices still increased but the growth was down by 4%, the State Statistics Service has reported. In January-March 2020 compared with January-March 2019, retail trade turnover decreased 10.6%, while in March 2020 compared to February 2020 it increased by 4.4%.

House prices in Ukraine have increased amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Interfax reported citing official data. Prices in the primary housing market in Ukraine in January-March 2020 increased 7% compared to January-March 2019, in the secondary market they grew by 9.7%, the State Statistics Service has reported. At the same time, according to the statistics service housing price growth has slowed down slightly in the primary market and accelerated in the secondary market. Despite price increases the housing market is basically frozen because of COVID-19 lockdown measures. 

As coronavirus cancels sporting events, esports are on the offense, with more and more online viewers being drawn to watching other people playing their favorite computer games. It’s a booming global industry and forecasted to eclipse $1 billion in revenues and grow its audience to 495 million people in 2020. Even amid economic pain inflicted by the coronavirus, some Ukrainian IT leaders and games developers are bullish about the long term opportunities for their businesses. 

Ukrainian IT startup Skyworker said on April 21 it had raised investments of $ 1.5 million. The capital was raised in the first round of investment from a venture investor from Kazakhstan, Murat Abdrakhmanov. Skyworker helps IT companies to accelerate their hiring process.

Ukrainian insurance companies predict a decline in business of 20-30% in 2020. The Ukrainian insurance market this year could cut the volume of insurance premiums collected by 20-30% compared with 2019 due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the economic situation, according to insurers polled by Interfax-Ukraine.