In 2023, the ecommerce market is defined by a series of changes, including the fact that Romanians make purchase decisions more slowly, but buy more frequently and in larger quantities online, the luxury segment has spectacular sales, and online stores are changing their focus to promoting products that bring higher profits. Thus, this year, the ecommerce market will grow by 20% compared to the previous year and the pandemic period, according to an analysis carried out by TRUDA, a unique platform for identifying profitable products from online stores.
Main predictions for Romanian ecommerce in 2023
1. The e-commerce market is growing by 20%
The ecommerce industry in Romania continues to grow organically, considering that Romanians have formed the habit of buying online, and their trust in card payment has increased significantly. Thus, in the current economic context, TRUDA estimates show that the ecommerce market will grow by 20% this year compared to last year and by 15% compared to 2020, when, due to the pandemic, most purchases from physical stores were made online.
2. Online stores are focusing on products that bring higher profits
Given the increasing competition in the online environment and, therefore, the cost of promotion has increased by 30% in the first months of the year, online stores are focusing on promoting products that bring consistent revenue and profit. These products are identified using advanced technologies, such as TRUDA, a unique technology in Romania, which indicates and classifies products into categories such as high revenue, average revenue, no revenue, super promoted, normal promoted, low promoted, not promoted; ROAS (return on ad spend) – with tags such as high ROAS, medium ROAS, low ROAS, no ROAS, Revenue (high revenue, average revenue, no revenue), Price, Trending Products, Hero products, Toxic products, and Profitable products, the platform having over 12 tags for each product.
“In online advertising, Google and Facebook algorithms tend to ‘fall in love’ with a small number of products that generate high traffic, but not necessarily sales. And in the current economic context, marked by high inflation and a possible economic crisis, online stores must act strategically to not throw money out the window, or more accurately, in promoting products without profitability. For better results with smaller marketing budgets, TRUDA analyses and identifies profitable products, suggesting suitable campaigns for their promotion and generating a sales growth of 30% or more”, said Catalin Macovei, founder of TRUDA and digital marketing specialist with over 10 years of experience.
3. The luxury product segment is recording spectacular sales
Sales for luxury products have increased by 50% in the Romanian ecommerce market lately, because of Romanians’ growing interest in purchasing such products from online stores. Thus, the most purchased products in the luxury category are those in the clothing, footwear, watches, and perfumes categories, where the average order value is 2,200 lei.
4. Romanian consumers have a harder time making purchase decisions
High inflation has significantly changed the behavior of Romanians when shopping online. Previously, online users had five interactions with a brand before purchasing a product, but now there are seven points of interaction with the brand in the purchase process until placing and confirming orders for lower-value products.
“Impulse buying has decreased due to both inflation and the fact that many of the most sought-after products are on multiple websites. Therefore, Romanian consumers now choose much more carefully where they buy products online and do a lot of research about the desired product and the store before placing an order. Because this purchasing behavior will dominate online, I recommend online stores take care of their image and invest in improving customer experience and loyalty, as well as analyzing which products bring sales and profit and promoting them, which they can do through our technology, which helps them sell more,” says Catalin Macovei, founder of TRUDA.
5. Romanians buy more products at lower prices
Already a trend in Romanian ecommerce, the increasingly frequent purchase of products online will be representative this year, given that more and more Romanians have developed the habit of buying online.
However, because of inflation, Romanians prefer to buy products at lower prices, but in larger quantities, especially products in the food, health & bio, fashion, and beauty categories, niches in which the average value of the shopping cart is higher, averaging between 150 lei and 220 lei.
In this regard, as more and more consumers are oriented towards less expensive products, online stores with lower prices will be advantaged, increasing their sales by selling a larger stock of products.
In conclusion, the ecommerce market in Romania follows its upward trend, but the competition is increasing online, given the potential it offers. Therefore, in the current economic context, Catalin Macovei, founder of TRUDA and one of the most well-known digital marketing experts, recommends companies that own online stores invest in promoting products that generate constant profits, even if the number of orders decreases, to direct marketing budgets to promotion channels that generate revenue quickly, and towards product categories that are relevant to the store’s customers and to retain customers.
