The Russian Post has opened a new railroad route to speed up the delivery of goods from China that will accommodate a booming demand for online shopping from Russia.

Online shopping from Chinese retailers, many dominated by companies owned by China’s Alibaba Group e-commerce giant, occupy a near-monopoly in Russian web purchases. Parcels from China account for more than 90 percent of all the packages that arrive in Russia through a growing trillion-ruble ($14.2 billion) online retail market, Russia's Association of Online Vendors (AKIT) estimates.



On Monday, the Russian postal service announced it would add a new, daily railroad route for packages weighing less than 2 kilograms to beef up its existing shipping system from China.