Romanian E-Commerce Market Size at the end of 2016: 1.8 billion EUR (INFOGRAPHIC)

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According to the main Romanian e-commerce market players and GPeC the value of the e-commerce market size in Romania exceeded 1.8 billion EUR in 2016, growing 30% compared to 2015 when the total e-commerce market size was 1.4 billion EUR. On average, Romanian people spent 5 million EUR daily for online shopping.

Furthermore, the figure of 1.8 billion EUR represents only etail (tangible goods sold online) and does not include services, bill payments, plane tickets, event tickets, hotel reservations, travel etc. If we would also add the above, the value of the total online shopping market in Romania would be considerably bigger.

GPeC is for 12 years the most important e-commerce event in Romania which also gathers and publishes the Romanian e-commerce market official figures every year – The Romanian E-Commerce Market Report. Here is the main data and information for last year according to the GPeC report:

ecommerce market romania 201611,2 million Internet users and 58% internet penetration rate

According to the latest studies, Romania’s population decreased from 19.8 million inhabitants to 19.4 million inhabitants in 2016. Out of these 19.4 million inhabitants, approximately 11.2 million are Internet users, a slight growth comparing to 11 million Internet users at the end of 2015. Therefore, the internet penetration rate grew from 56% in 2015 to 58% in 2016.

Mobile shopping reached 35-40% of the total Romanian e-commerce market

Smartphone penetration rate grew significantly in Romania in 2016 to 70% – comparing to 50% in 2015. More and more Romanian people own a smartphone and more and more of them use them for shopping online and browsing online shop content. Therefore, the top Romanian online shops reported significant increase in mobile device traffic: over 50% of online shops visits come from mobile devices.

What is more, the number of orders from mobile devices has grown as well: if in 2015 we had 25-30% of online shopping orders coming from mobile devices, at the end of 2016 mobile commerce accounted for 35-40% of online shopping orders.

However, according to Consumer Report 2016, Romanian people use mobile phones primarily for Social Networking, E-Mail, Content Video viewing, Browsing and Gaming, in this order.

“Mobile” was the trend of 2016 and will continue to be the main focus for 2017 as Romanian online shops have understood that the mobile is no longer the future but the present. However, the main issue stays optimising the online shop mobile user experience and loading time.

Wage increase, VAT decrease and price decrease were the main factors that contributed to the growth of the Romanian economy in 2016. All of these factors pushed the e-commerce market growth as well. On average, a Romanian online buyer purchased online 8.4 times during 2016 – increasing from 8.2 times in 2015 and 8.1 times in 2014.

Watch the video market report with English subtitles:

For Black Friday, Romanians bought online products worth 130 million EUR

Only for Black Friday (November 2016) Romanian people bought products online of 130 million EUR, which is a significant growth if we compare to 100 million EUR for Black Friday 2015. According to top online shops in Romania, Romanian people’s appetite for discounts was the reason why online shops started having more and more frequent Black Friday campaigns (sometimes named differently). Each Black Friday campaign brings an approximately 30% growth in online sales. 

44.9% online card payments growth

As far as online card payments is concerned, the total volume for 2016 grew significantly compared to 2015, reaching approximately 745 million EUR compared to 514 million EUR in 2015, which is a 44.9% growth. Out of the total 745 million EUR, RomCard processed 575 million EUR in 3D Secure, the difference of 170 million EUR being processed by Netopia mobilPay. Both companies registered significant growth comparing to 2015 when RomCard processed 394 million EUR and mobilPay processed 120 million EUR.

Romanian people chose to pay online by card especially when they paid for services and less when they paid for etail, where the card payments percentage is similar to 2015, approximately 6-7%. The preffered payment method for Romanian etail continues to be cash on delivery – approximately 90% of orders are paid cash on delivery. 2-3% of payments are other payment methods such as online banking, micropayments by SMS etc.

In 2016, 64% of Visa card online payments were payments to International online merchants, Romanian people spending money for plane tickets, travel and hotels as well as online adult and casino.

The average growth ot the Romanian economy is also visible in the growth of average order value on Visa cards which increased from 40 EUR in 2015 to 50 EUR in 2016.

The good news is that etail came second in the top of product categories for online card payments. Romanian people use card payments online to pay bills, to buy products online and to pay for telecom services, in this order.

Approximately 5.000 Romanian online shops

As far as the number of Romanian online shops is concerned, the main players and GPeC estimate a similar number comparing to 2015, which means that there are approximately 5000 online shops active on the market. However, research shows that there are over 20000 websites in Romania that have shopping flow and add-to-cart button active.

The top of e-commerce categories in 2016 has not changed comparing to 2015: Electro-IT&C (e.g. PC and computer parts, notebooks, tablets, mobile phones, electronics and home appliances), Fashion & Beauty (e.g. clothes, shoes, accessories, cosmetics, products, watches etc., Home & Deco (home design products, furniture etc) and Baby, Kids and Toys (e.g. toys, strollers, baby clothes, diapers etc.).

For Romanian Home & Deco online shops, 2016 meant an average order value

Comparing to 2015, the transaction average order value decresed for all the above categories with the sole exception of Home & Deco where the average order value doubled. Romanian people spend 474 RON/transaction in 2016, comparing to 220 RON/transaction in 2015. 

For Electro-IT&C, the average order value decreased from 680 RON in 2015 to 669 RON in 2016. The same happened for Fashion & Beauty from 180 RON in 2015 to 161 RON in 2016 and for the Baby, Kids & Toys, the average value order decreased from 210 RON in 2015 to 203 RON in 2016.

Romanian e-commerce market grew approximately 30% in 2016 comparing to 2015

Even though Romanian people spent less per order, the number of transaction has grown significantly: ”2016 meant the same growth trend as the last few years bringing approximately 30% increase for the Romanian e-commerce market. The e-commerce industry is one of the few Romanian industries growing constantly every year” said Andrei Radu, CEO & Founder GPeC.

All the information can be found in the above infographic (design by Silkweb). All the information as well as the infographic can be used only by mentioning the source GPeC with link to  www.gpec.ro

The information sources for the information in this article are in alphabetical order: 2Performant, Breeze Mobile, Consumer Report 2016, GPeC, Internet World Stats, mobilPay, RomCard, Visa România.

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GPeC is the most important e-commerce event in Romania, the only online event happening for 8 months every year. With a 12-year tradition, GPeC is the perfect mix of Conferences, Workshops, Expo, Intensive E-Commerce Trainings and the Romanian Online Shops Competition and Romanian E-Commerce Awards which are meant to contribute to the overall Romanian e-commerce growth.

GPeC Summit, the Spring Edition, will take place in May 2017. All details will soon be published on www.GPeC.ro/EN. Stay tuned!

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