Romania is located on the Balkan Peninsula. It borders Hungary, Serbia, Ukraine, and Moldavia. It has access to the Black Sea. Romania is a member of the EU, the UN, and NATO. It is the seventh biggest country in the EU in the case of population.
Its GDP in 2019 was at the level of US$250.08 billion. Its economy is developing so is ecommerce. In this article, you will find out some highlights from the Romanian ecommerce market and get to know these customers better. Let’s start.
Romanian ecommerce overview
Ecommerce in 2020 is forecasted to reach US$2,360m? In five years, this number may cross US$4 billion. There are 8.3 million Romanians who do shopping online. It means that user penetration this year may reach 43.4% and in five years – 56.7%.
The largest ecommerce sector is Fashion. It generates 40% of the revenue. This sector is followed by Electronics & Media with 26% of ecommerce revenue. Then comes the Food & Personal Care sector with 14% of Romanian ecommerce revenue. One before last Toys, Hobby & DIY with 12% and the last one Furniture & Appliances which generates 9% of ecommerce revenue.
When it comes to favorite ecommerce stores, they are all Romanian webs. The undeniable leader is emag.ro. Its net sales in 2019 were US$604m. And then comes fashiondays.ro with US$81m. The third-place belongs to dedeman.ro, store with furniture and house appliances.
source: https://ecommercedb.com/en/markets/ro/all
Customer behavior in Romania
Considering the country’s economic history, Romanian consumers are very responsible and cautious. They are attached to their favorite brands and are reluctant to buy new ones. An important factor is a price-quality ratio. Romanians are willing to pay more for a better quality product.
They also pay attention to the packaging. As after-sales services expand, more and more consumers are becoming sensitive to this type of sales behavior. Based on internet penetration (80%), quite a few consumers shop online. About 78% visited websites of stores, and 70% made purchases on the Internet.
source: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-romania
Where do Romanians buy from? The undeniable favorite is Germany, with a score of US$14.1 billion. Then comes Italy with US$7.98 billion. The third-place here belongs to Hungary, with US$5.7 billion. And the last two – France with US$4.3 billion and Poland with US$3.41 billion.
source: https://learning.eshopworld.com/ecommerce-blog/romania-ecommerce-insights/
Romanian payment methods
The leader in the payment market is clearly visible- prepaid cards cover 70% of the market. Mobile payments have much fewer fans – 19% of transactions are done this way. Other methods, like credit cards or e-wallets have a marginal share.
source: https://www.paymentwall.com/pl/payment-methods/romania
Romania is a member of SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area). It means that payments inside the European Union are much easier and also safer. This agreement also ensures uniform legal regulations for payments across all member countries.
Social media in Romania
There are over 15 million Romanian customers online. They spend on average 7 hours and 21 minutes surfing the Internet. There about 11 million people active on social media, and 98% of them use it via mobile.
source: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-romania
When it comes to the most used social media platform, YouTube is running this ranking – 92% of users aged 16-24 use it. Then comes Facebook (90%) and its Messenger (74%).
source: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-romania
The most expansive advertisement reach has Facebook; thanks to ads on this platform, you can reach even 9.80 million people. Then comes Instagram, thanks advertisement via this platform, you can get to even 3.70 million people. The lowest score here has Twitter, with 290 thousand users of ad reach.
Logistics in Romania
The railway network and Romanians cover as much as 11,385 km. Căile Ferate Române is the official name of the national railways that handle both passenger and freight transport. As for the road network – a total of 198,817 km, of which about 230 km are express roads. An important sailing canal is the Danube. As many as 1075 km out of 1731 are located on this river.
There are two ports in Romania – The Port of Constanta, The Port of Tulcea. What is also worth to mention there are as many as six airports – Henri Coanda International Airport-Bucharest, Cluj Avram Iancu International Airport, Timișoara Traian Vuia International Airport, Iași International Airport, George Enescu International Airport, and Târgu Mureș Transylvania Airport. Air transport is an important channel both in terms of passenger transport, which strongly supports the tourism sector and in terms of the transportation of goods.
To sum up
Romania is a very underestimated country in terms of economical potential. In the case of ecommerce, many consumers are interested in buying online. We have hope that thanks to our overview you have gained some useful information about this market.
If you are interested in other Balkan countries, you can find similar articles about Bulgaria and Croatia.
