Until 1993, Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia. It is currently an independent country, bordering Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Ukraine, and Hungary. There is no access to sea waters. From 2004 it belongs to the European Union and from 2009 to the euro area.
The GDP of this country in 2019 was US$105.42 billion. The Slovak economy is one of the fastest-growing in Europe. How about ecommerce? Does it live up to economics? We will check this and several other aspects. Let’s start with an overview.
Slovak ecommerce overview
In 2020 revenue on the Slovak ecommerce market is predicted to come to US$1,124m. In five years, it may hit US$1,396m. There are 22 million Slovaks doing shopping online. User penetration in this market is at the level of 48.3%, and by 2025 it is forecasted to grow to 56.8%.
The most popular ecommerce sites among Slovaks are based at the .sk domain. Besides Ikea – here, after loading the page, you can choose your country.
The winner is alza.sk – a Slovak marketplace. Its net sale in 2019 was US$346m. The second place belongs to mall.sk – another marketplace. Itesco.sk owns the last place at the podium.
source: https://ecommercedb.com/en/markets/sk/all
The biggest sector in Slovak ecommerce is Fashion. It generates 37% of the ecommerce revenue of this country. This is followed by Electronics & Media. It accounts for 28% of ecommerce revenue. Then comes Toys, Hobby & DIY with 17%, and Furniture & Appliances with 10%. Last but not least, Food & Personal Care, which generates 9% of Slovak ecommerce revenue.
Consumer behavior in Slovakia
For Slovaks, the price is still the main factor deciding about the purchase of a given product. Regardless, there are more and more fans of high quality, despite the high price. This is related to the increase in income in this country. Consumer awareness is also increasing. Slovaks are checking the ingredients and origin of products more and more often.
It is also closely related to the renewed love of local sellers. Few years ago the global ones were the most popular but not any longer. Now the smaller and more local the store, the better. Ecommerce also came to the minds of Slovaks and stayed with them for a longer time. More people and more often choose online shopping.
Where do Slovaks buy from? The top country here is Germany. The value of the purchase from this country stands at the level of US$13.7 billion. Then comes the Czech Republic – US$11.8 billion. The third-place belongs to China with US$6.19 billion. Russia has a little lower score – US$5.99 billion. And the last one South Korea with a US$5.57 billion purchase value.
source: https://learning.eshopworld.com/ecommerce-blog/slovakia-ecommerce-insights/
Payments methods in Slovakia
The top payment method for Slovaks is via mobiles. Then come prepaid cards. The third place with 17% of the market share belongs to credit cards. Bank transfers and e-wallets cover the fewer transactions – 2% and 3%.
source: https://www.paymentwall.com/pl/payment-methods/slovakia
The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Direct Debit is a European initiative to simplify payments within the EU. It operates in Slovakia. This initiative is a payment agreement by which the payers authorize the creditors to collect a specific payment from their bank account. The basis for such actions is a signed mandate. SEPA operates in 34 countries
The most frequently used means of payment are mobiles, so Mobiano has found a wide range of recipients on this market. Mobiano is a mobile payment solution that enables payments in 65 countries.
Slovak social media
There are almost 5 million Slovaks online. Nearly 3 million use social media actively. Comparing 2019 and 2020, there was a 6.6% increase in the number of social media users.
source: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-slovakia
What is essential – 96% of Slovak users use social media via mobile. The share of web traffic generated by mobiles is increasing while in the case of laptops and desktops, it is decreasing.
The favorite social media platform for Slovaks is Facebook. Thanks to ads on this platform, you can get to even 2.50 million users. Thanks to an Instagram advertisement – 1.1 million users can be reached.
source: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-slovakia
Slovaks are big fans of Android devices; almost 80% of web traffic is generated from them. When it comes to iOS – 18% of web traffic, and there is a decreasing trend.
Logistics in Slovakia
Road transport dominates the logistics of Slovakia. Over 200 million tonnes of goods are transported in this way annually. This is because Slovakia has no access to the sea, so transport this way is impossible. Despite this, Slovakia has two ports: Port of Bratislava and Port of Komarno as it’s one of the Danube delta regions. About 1.5 million goods are transported by railways each year.
Bratislava and Vienna are also two capital cities located the closest to each other in terms of world capitals, and Bratislava directly borders Austria, which also helps in logistics. The airport in Vienna is one of the biggest airports in Europe, so Slovak logistics are also sorted this way.
Air transport is also quite important – 400,000 tons of goods are transported this way. Slovakia has six airports – Bratislava Airport, Kosice Airport, Poprad-Tatry Airport, Sliac Airport, Zilina Airport, Piestany Airport.
To sum up
The Slovak economy is developing rapidly, as is its ecommerce. Consumers believe in its potential and choose this type of shopping more and more often. We hope that such a small overview of the Slovak market will allow you to operate effectively in it.
If you are interested in other countries, feel free to dive in. There are, for example, articles about Lithuania or Croatia.
