Advanced Engineering Forum Submitted: 2017-02-27

ISSN: 2234-991X, Vol. 27, pp 274-279 Revised: 2017-05-24

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AEF.27.274 Accepted: 2017-06-07
© 2018 Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland Online: 2018-04-27

Romanian E-Commerce Trends

Silviu V. Miroslav1,a*, Mirona A.M. Popescu2,b
1
The Faculty of Entrepreneurship, Engineering and Business Management, POLITEHNICA
University of Bucharest, Splaiul Independentei No.313, Romania
2
The Faculty of Entrepreneurship, Engineering and Business Management, POLITEHNICA
University of Bucharest, Splaiul Independentei No.313, Romania
a
silviu.miroslav@gmail.com, bmirona.popescu15@gmail.com

Keywords: Romanian E-commerce Trends, Romanian Mobile E-commerce, Romanian Online

Market, E-commerce

Abstract. Our lives changed completely in the last years, this is to the creation and highly
utilization of the Internet. Before we used to wait for our mails in the post for weeks, calling abroad
was an expensive option definitely not fit for everyday using, and many other examples, but today
the things are different. Everything changed, now we can send e-mails, now we can make free calls
with different websites and applications, we can send free messages, we can meet people, we can do
a lot of things over the internet, but the most important aspect for us is that now we can even make
our shopping online.
The Internet caused a revolution in selling nearly everybody who uses an internet connection
bought something online.
We are becoming very close to say goodbye to the conventional shopping, yes we will still go to
buy bread, toilet paper and make the grocery from the hypermarket or from mega image, BUT we
already started to buy our clothing online, to buy our electronics online, we pay for the holidays
online, we even take medicine from the online medium, and this is not the start, for some of us we
already very used buying our stuff online.
The Romanias are great buyers, in 2016 Romanian people spent more than 1.8 Billion Eur, and this
is only for shopping, not for service payments, like bills payments, tickets to events and concerts,
and without holidays payments, like plane tickets or hotel reservations.

Introduction
The Internet penetration in Romania for the year 2014, it was around 49.76%. In 2015
Romania’s population it was around 19,8 million inhabitants, and in 2016 Romania had a small
decrease of the population to a total of 19,4 million inhabitants, according to the latest studies [1].
Therefore the penetration rate of the Internet grew from 56% in the year of 2015 to a total of 58% in
2016. Even though Romania does not have a very high percentage regarding the penetration rate of
the Internet users, according to Akamai, Romania has some good news, Romania is ranked on the
1st place in Europe regarding the Internet Connection Speed, and on the 10th place for the entire
world for the year of 2015 [2].
The smartphone penetration grew in Romania from 50% in 2015 to 70% in 2016. More and
more Romanian people started to own a smartphone, and of course that many of the smartphones
are being used for online shopping and for scouting online shopping products and services.
However, according to the Consumer Report 2016, Romanians are using mobile devices primarily
for E-mail Services, Video content viewing, Social Networking, Internet Browsing and Gaming.
The growth of the Romanian economy in 2016 is due to VAT decrease, price decrease and the
increase of the salaries. All these circumstances contributed to the growth of the Romanian
E-commerce market too. On an average, a Romanian online buyer, bought online in 2014 for
8.1 times. In 2015, the average increased to 8.2 and in 2016 the average increased to 8.4.
The trend for 2016 was the “mobile era” and will continue being the main trend for 2017 as
well, due to the fact that more and more Romanians are acquiring smartphones, and the Romanian

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 Advanced Engineering Forum Vol. 27 275

Online Shops already understood this trend, and the mobile era is no longer the future, it is the
present.

Money Spent by Romanians

The total amount of money spent by Romanians on the online market for 2016 was around
1,8 Billion Euro. For 2015, it was around 1,4 Billion Euro, and for 2014 it was around 1,1 Billion
Euro. All the amounts are without payments for services like bill payments, event tickets, plain
tickets, hotels, vacations or holidays.
On average, in 2016, Romanian people spent around 5 Million per day just in e-retail,
excluding all the payments for services.

Payment Methods
Romanian people still prefer to pay with cash on delivery, and there are a few reasons why they
adopt this option: one of them is that they want to see the product before paying for it, one other
reason is that the product may take a while to be received and they do not want to pay upfront; this
way they can still use the money until the product arrives. From all the online orders, 90% of them
are orders with cash on delivery.
Regarding the online card payments, the volume for 2016 grew significantly in comparison
with 2015, reaching a total of approximately 745 Million Euro for 2016 and 514 Million Euro in
2015, which has a 44.9% growth. From the total of 745 Million Euro, the payment processor
RomCard processed 575 million Euro in 3D Secure. The remaining 170 million Euro were
processed by Netopia mobilPay. Both of these payment processors had a significant growth
comparing the numbers with 2015: RomCard processed 394 Million Euro and Netopia mobilPay
processed 120 million Euro. The card payment percentage for 2016 is approximately 6-7%, similar
to 2015.
The Romanians are paying online by card when it comes to services like bill payments, plain
tickets, vacations, etc.
The remaining 2-3% of payments are done with payments methods like online transfers and
SMS payments.
In the ending of 2016 and 2017, a new payment method has been added by the payment
processors companies, this payment method is with BitCoin.
BitCoin is a cryptocurrency and a payment system. Since February 2015, over
100.000 merchants and vendors started to accept bitcoin as a payment.
In Romania the payments with bitcoin just started, but there are a lot of Romanians, that are
enjoying the posibility to pay with bitcoin, the major players started to add this option as a payment
method.

Black Friday 2016

In November 2016, on Black Friday, Romanians bought products on the web in value of
130 Million Euro, and compared with Black Friday 2015 there is a significant growth. In 2015 for
Black Friday, Romanian people spent 100 Million Euro.
When it comes to Black Friday, Romanians are making emotional shopping, this means that
even though they do not need the product, but they see a good price or a high discount they are
going to acquire that product.
eMAG, the biggest online shop from Romania, accustomed Romanian people when it comes to
Black Friday to come with new Promotions. A few years ago they even sold cars on their website,
but for Black Friday 2016 they sold Energy. eMAG sold 1000 energy supplying contracts provided
by EON, where the first 6 months of the energy were free.
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eMAG sold in the first day of Black Friday more than 1 million of products, they sold 13 Kg of
gold, and they even sold 113 diamonds.
For the Black Friday of 2016, people even had good offers for traveling and vacations, from
plane tickets to vacations that were 40-50% more cheaper.
Romanians are interested in the shops that are keeping the Black Friday offer open, even after
the campaign closes.

Main Products Categories

The main categories of Romanian E-commerce have not changed compared to 2015.
Romanians are still interested in Electro-IT&C, Fashion and Beauty, Home & Deco and Baby,
Kinds and Toys.
Romanian people are most interested in Electro-IT&C, they like to buy lots of electronics like
PCs and computer parts, notebooks, laptops, smartphones, etc. The average basket for 2015 was
680 RON and for 2016 decreased to 669 RON. The highest interest for 2016 was for big appliances
like refrigerators, washing machines, ovens etc.
For the Fashion & Beauty category, Romanian people started to buy more expensive products
from top brands, but the average basket decreased from 2015 to 2016. In 2015, the average basket
was around 180 RON and in 2016 it was 161 RON.
For the category „Baby, Kids and Toys” the trend was the same: a decrease in the average
order amount. The average order amount in 2015 was 210 RON and it decreased to 203 RON in
2016.
The „Home & Deco“ category was the only one where the average order amount did not
decrease, instead the value doubled. In 2015 Romanian people spent 220 RON per transaction and
in 2016 they spent 474 RON per transaction.
Even though the Romanians spent less money per order, the number of transactions has grown
significantly. “The e-commerce industry is one of the few Romanian industries growing constantly
every year”, said Andrei Radu, CEO & Founder GpeC[3].

.ro E-Commerce Shops

In 2016, according to GPeC there are approximately 5000 Romanian online shops, nearly the
same as in 2015. However, researches are showing that there are more than 20,000 websites that
have shopping cart functionality.
The Romanian e-Commerce websites are better looking that the abroad online shops, making it
easy for the clients to have a good online shopping experience. Romanian online shops focused
very much on having a good responsive website, creating a good shopping experience even when
the client is buying with a mobile device like a smartphone. But the Romanian online shops started
to develop mobile applications too.
Some top e-Commerce companies started offering same day delivery, and they opened delivery
points in Bucharest and across the country, this way the client can easily pick up the product.
Romanian E-commerce Shops stopped focusing on the client, like they used to do it. Now they
see clients just like numbers, but I believe that in the near future the focus on the client will come
back, making the customers satisfied.
There are however Romanian e-Commerce Shops that are interacting more with the client, but
the website experience while buying a product is nearly a nightmare, so these shops should focus on
the website too. This way, they can create a very good experience for the client, and make the
shopping process easier and faster.
The major Online Shop from Romania it is eMag. eMag was founded in 2001, at the start
they sold only computers and computers accessories. In the future years since 2001 they also started
to sell sporting goods, books, cosmetics, and today they sell absolutley everything.
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In July 2012 the South African investition found called Naspers bought 70% of eMag shares
after the Naspers acquisition, eMag started to expand outside Romania, now they sell in Bulgary,
Hungary and Poland [4].
The South Africa investion found Naspers acquired other online Romanin bussineses, in
2009 they bought autovit.ro, autovit.ro beeing the most used platform for selling cars. And they
own olx.ro, olx.ro beeing the largest online platform from Romania, where people sells and buy any
kind of products.
The major online Shops started to accept as payment a new option, this option is throw Bitcoin,
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and a payment system. This payment method it is a real advantage for
the shops, because for the credit card processor they have to pay 2,5-3% of the transaction but with
bitcoin the fees for the shop is nearly 0%. The major online shops that are accepting the payment
option with bitcoin are emag.ro, pcgarage.ro, evomag.ro and they are more other online shops that
are accepting Bitcoin [5].
According to the ranking offered by Alexa.com the 10 top of the most visisted online shops
from Romania is the following[6]:
1. eMag (electronics, appliances, and as of recently, groceries)
2. Altex (electronics, appliances and similar)
3. PC Garage (PCs and PC components)
4. CEL.ro (electronics, appliances and similar)
5. elefant.ro (books, toys, cosmetics, clothing, shoes, etc)
6. Dedeman (construction materials)
7. Evomag (electronics, appliances and similar)
8. Flanco (electronics, appliances and similar)
9. Fashion Days (clothing)
10. F64 (photo-video store)

Romanian Shoppers
In 2016 the average order paid with the card was 50 Euro, and in 2015 it was 40 Euro. Even
though Romanians are still afraid or do not want to pay by card, in 2016 there was a 30% growth in
payments using this method.
In the present Romanian people are doing research before buying a product, they are analyzing
the market, searching for better prices on different shops, they are reading reviews, they go to
specialized websites and forums, they even ask friends about the product and not least, they started
to watch video reviews of the products on YouTube.
In 2015 the most searched keywords for products on Google were wedding dresses, and in
2016 Romanian People were interested in TVs.
In the last years the Romanian people started to buy products from outside our country thow
the platforms of Alibaba Group, they have 2 big shopping platforms one of them is aliexpress.com
and the other one is alibaba.com. Both of them are full with chinese products, here the romanians
are buying cheap products that are starting from a few cents.
Aliexpress.com it is a retail online shop platform, where the romanians are not buying lots of
products and they buy the products for personal use.
Alibaba.com it is a wholesale online shop platform, the romanians that are buying from here
are interested in buying large quantitities of products, after receiving the products some online
romanian entrepeneurs are selling them on free marketplaces online platforms like olx.ro, and
others online romanian entrepeneurs are selling the product overseas, on big international selling
platforms like amazon.
When it comes for the Romanian people to make online shopping from the Alibaba Group, they
encounter some big disadvantages, the biggest one being the shipping costs, if they want to have a
fast delivery, the shipping cost it is very expensive, if they want a cheap shipping cost they have to
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wait for the products more than 25 days. One other big disadvantage is that the Romanian people
has to pay for custom taxes and sometimes for vat taxes. One other disadvantage can be the quality
of the product. Even that the shipping costs are expensive, even that they have to pay different
taxes, some products will arrive at the house of the romanian customer at a price below the prices of
the products that can acquire from Romania, this is why a lot of Romanians are buying products
from China with the help of Alibaba Group online platforms like aliexpress.com and alibaba.com.
Other Romanians are buying products with the help of the online platform offered by Amazon,
on Amazon they can find any product that they need and want. Amazon has separate retail websites
for the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain,
Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India and Mexico. Amazon also offers international
shipping to certain other countries for some of its products.
The Romanians are slightly different from other people regarding online shopping, because
they are not returning items so often, compared to other countries’ statistics.
The main benefits that Romanian customers are looking for in an online shop are free delivery,
promotions and discounts, free product return and fast delivery.

Summary
The value of the e-Commerce market dimension in Romania for the year 2016 grew up with
30% compared to the market dimension from 2015. In 2015 the market size it was 1.4 Billion EUR
and in 2016 grew to 1.8 Billion EUR.
The amount of 1.8 Billion EUR represents only the retail products, in this amount are not
included the services like bill payments, plane tickets, event tickets and not even the holidays that
were paid online.
The smartphone penetration in Romania grew significantly in 2016 the penetration rate grew to
70%, in comparison with 2015 when the penetration rate was at 50%.
The main trend for 2016 it was the mobile trend and it will continue to be the main trend for
2017, and the Romanian online shops are taking this into consideration, creating better experience
for the mobile users and clients.
For Romania they are approximately 5.000 Romanian Online Shops.
When it comes to online shopping, not only that on Black Friday the Romanians are buying
items when they see big discounts or good promotions, but they even make emotional shopping,
buying products that they don`t necessary need. eMAG had sells of 55 million Euro for Black
Friday in 2016.
The Romanian People before buying a product they need, they are doing a research for that
product, trying to find the best price at it and also to find if the product meet their needs. Usually
before buying a TV, the Romanians are first researching and then they buy it after 11 days.
Still, the most bought products are from the Electro IT&C and the Romanians are buying more
and more expensive smartphones and home appliances.
Romanian People does not want to pay for the products with the card because they have a fear
for this kind of payment method, so 90% of the orders are paid with cash on delivery.
All the Romanian online shoppers are interested in having a free delivery service and a free
return service. The top online shops have added a new delivery option: same day delivery which
means that the product will arrive in just 2 hours. This service is only for Bucharest and is not free
yet.
The rate of return for Romania is very small in comparison with other countries.
Romanian People are spending more money for acquiring products and services online. Andrei
Radu said that e-Commerce industry is one of the few Romanian industries that is growing
constantly every year.
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References
[1] Institutul National de Statistica information found on http://www.insse.ro (2016)
[2] Romania Internet speed Wikipedia and Akamai information found on
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Romania (2015)
[3] The 11th edition of Gala Premiilor e-Commerce 2016
[4] eMAG Wikipedia information found on https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMAG
[5] Bitcoin Wikipedia information found on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
[6] Romanian e-Commerce top 10 information found on http://alexa.com