The holiday of 8 March is very popular in the CIS countries, on this day all men congratulate their beloved women (sisters, mothers, wives, etc.) and give them different presents. On average the Ukrainian men spend 250-400 UA hryvnias (35-50 USD) in the Internet on the gifts for women on the occasion of 8 March.

At the end of the year 2011 года the Ukrainians increased their presence in the Internet, as it has been informed by GfK Ukraine according to the results of their own survey of the telecommunications services market. The number of regular Internet users has reached 33% of UAnet audience; moreover, 77% of home computers have already got an access to the Net. More and more Ukrainians regularly watch TV programs and video, and listen to the radio online.

New large retail facilities are springing up in Kiev. Last year two large malls opened their doors to the customers: the second line of Dream Town (shopping and leisure center) with the gross leasable area (GLA) of nearly 45 thousand square meters and InSilver (shopping and leisure center) with the GLA of 10 thousand of square meters. According to Natalia Kravets, Director of Retail Property Department in Colliers International Ukraine Company, at the end of 2011 the total offer of sales areas in the segment of shopping centers/shopping and leisure centers in Kiev was 700 thousand sq. meters. It means that every thousand of Kiev dwellers has got 284 sq. meters of sales areas. This figure is higher than that of Moscow (265 sq. meters) and Bucharest (243 sq. meters).

Over the past two years, the rapid growth of companies that sell discount, surprised even the pioneers of the industry. The number of such sites, according to the portal Vipon, close to 30 (there were less than 10). Their total annual turnover reached 150 million UAH ($18 millions).

The engine of commerce has undergone capital repairs. According to the data of the All-Ukrainian Advertising Coalition in the year of 2011 mass media managed to earn $ 1,5 bln, which was $ 250 mln. more than in 2010. The Internet has become the only sector with advertising volume which exceeded all pre-crisis figures over the last year.

On March 13 the Verkhovna Rada has passed a new wording of the Customs Code of Ukraine in the second reading. 264 public deputies voted “yes”. In this Law has been taken into consideration all amendments previously made by the President Viktor Yanukovich fully or partially on January 11.

On March 29-30, 2012 an annual International Conference «Distance Selling in Russia» will be held in Moscow in MTUCI Congress Center. The organizer of this event is the National Association of Mail Order and Distance Selling (NAMO) in cooperation with «Ivanov Direct» Marketing Communications Agency.

A representative of LLENTAB Swede Group in Ukraine – “LLENTAB” LLC has just started construction of a new logistic complex in Kharkov.

At the meeting devoted to flood countermeasures in the Carpathian region the Prime Minister of Ukraine Nikolay Azarov has announced that the Government is developing new logistics of cargo transportation, as it has been informed by the Department of Information and Public Communications of the front-office of the Cabinet of Ukraine.

As of the end of the year of 2011 the area of modern warehouse premises in Kiev region was about 1.332 mln. sq. meters. This figure includes approximately 119.000 sq. meters of modern specialized cooling and freezing, as well as chemical warehouse premises, as it has been reported by DTZ.