Romania’s ecommerce market is becoming stronger in South-East Europe, growing faster than the global average of 16.6% per year, reaching a total value of 10 billion euros by 2025, according to data from the eBook eCommerce Growth Strategies, the largest report of data and growth strategies for online stores in Romania, made by Limitless Agency, one of the leading digital marketing agencies on the market. At the same time, electronic commerce will be used by 54% of the country’s inhabitants in the coming years.
According to the Limitless Agency report, which analyses the Digital Market Outlook data, revenues from the e-commerce market in Romania will reach 7 billion euros in 2023, respectively almost 12 billion euros by 2027.
The ecommerce market in Romania has around 100 online stores that record over 1,000 orders per day. However, it is expected to grow up to three times in the coming years based on various digital transformation trends that will define local electronic commerce.
“Having every reason to develop rapidly, the e-commerce market in Romania will register annual growth higher than the global average of 10%. The penetration of the Internet in almost all areas of the country, together with the modern infrastructure of technologies and the simplification of the online purchase process, causes more and more Romanians to order online, including in rural areas, giving up purchases from physical stores. Thus, the e-commerce market generated an average revenue per user of over 484 euros in 2022 at the local level, which, by 2027, will increase to almost 900 euros per user. Therefore, in the coming years, Romania will become a landmark on the regional map of e-commerce”, says Daniel Slăvenie, CEO&Partner Limitless Agency.
Also, according to eBook Ecommerce Growth Strategies data, the number of e-commerce users would increase to 10.6 million by 2025, representing almost 54% of Romania’s population, and to over 11 million users by 2027. Currently, only 45% of Romanians order online, although the Internet penetration rate is over 90%. Comparatively, in the Nordic countries, the percentage of those who order online reaches 95%.
How Romanians order online: the most purchased products
The highest share of people who shopped online was recorded in the North-West and Center regions. However, overall, those from Bucharest and Ilfov had the highest share, of 58.3%, in 2022, declaring that they purchased products via the Internet in the last three months.
Almost 50% of Romanians who order online place two orders in 3 months and only 12% order up to 6 times a month. Also, 49% of Romanians pay more for a brand they know, and 57% pay more for an eco-friendly product.
In 2022, Romanians bought online products from the following categories:
● Fashion: 2.63 billion euros (46% of the e-commerce market)
● Electronics: 1.1 billion euros (19% of the e-commerce market)
● Personal and home care: 885 million euros (15% of the e-commerce market)
● Toys, hobby, DIY: 590 million euros (10% of the e-commerce market)
● Food: 146 million euros (2.6% of the e-commerce market)
● Furniture: 125 million euros (2.2% of the e-commerce market)
● Music, movies, games: 88.9 million euros (1.5% of the e-commerce market)
● Beverages: 32.1 million euros (0.5% of the e-commerce market)
At the same time, 21% of Romanians order online from websites outside the country: almost a third of Romanians prefer to buy online from stores in China (27%), EU member states (23%), and the USA (4%). AliExpress ranks second in the list of foreign platforms preferred by Romanians, just ahead of Amazon.
Why do Romanians buy online and how do they pay?
Among the main reasons why Romanians buy online are saving time (85%), avoiding the stress of shopping in traditional stores (70%), and the opportunity to save (69%).
At the same time, the arguments of those who do not buy online are: they want to see the products before the purchase (64%), they do not trust that they will receive what they order (55%), they are afraid that the delivery fees are too high (50%) and don’t know how to order online (15%). Also, there are many people who do not order online because they cannot find complete product information, images, descriptions, or reviews for the products.
Regarding the preferred payment method, cash on delivery is still the most used (31%), followed by online payment by debit or credit card (26%), digital and mobile wallet (23%), bank transfer (19 %), and other methods.
Created with the aim of educating and supporting the Romanian ecommerce market, eBook Ecommerce Growth Strategies is a complex report containing over 90 tested strategies and recommendations for increasing online sales, from 24 experts in ecommerce, online marketing, and brand communication, technologies for ecommerce, design, delivery, and legislation in the field. The report is dedicated to entrepreneurs who want to scale their online stores, entrepreneurs who invest in online marketing, and marketers who manage online stores.
The ebook can be downloaded here.
