Digital inequality: internet technologies in activation of consumer behavior

The paper is focused on the analysis of the territorial distribution of digital inequality in the Russian region and its influence on the level of online trading in the region. The paper presents the results of monitoring studies of the development of competition and of anti-monopoly regulation in the Nizhny Novgorod region, conducted since 2014, and the results of the last survey in 2018 (comparable methodology was used) on 3,000 respondents out of 20 districts of the region, different by their socio-economic situation. The sample is territorially random, representing the population by sex and age. The authors use the concept of digital inequality of the third generation developed by Ragnedda (Ragnedda, 2017) for study of digital inequality in shopping online possibilities. This approach defines digital inequality not only as an information and technological and educational elements in differences of social groups and communities in the Internet access, but also as an inequality of the advantages that groups might get from its use. This type of inequality cannot be overcome only due to technological and popularizing decisions; inequality should be controlled by the state and communities to prevent its escalation and of excluding entire territories from social and economic development. The paper presents the invented methodologyfor the typology of administrative municipalities of the region, which helps in implementation of state control over competition. All territories of the region were divided into four zones with different degree of government regulation needed. It helps to reduce the imbalance in market development and to lower the digital divide in Internet shopping. A study of the interrelation between online shopping and retail population satisfaction in administrative regions of Russian regions shows the urgent need to expand municipal competition development maps to include shopping online indicators.