Do you plan to have an online shop in Romania? You will need this info.

Romania is with its nearly 20 million inhabitants and an underdeveloped romanian online market a great country for expansion. Barriers that have been invincible before, are nowhere more present. Packet delivery rates are highly acceptable due to high competition from logistics companies. We are also contributing to the greater accessibility of the Romanian market here in Expandeco. As well as in Hungary, you can rely on our top customer service, SEO translations, or local reverse delivery service in Romania.

A typical Romanian online customer

The average Romanian customer makes approximately 8 purchases a year, each year more and more. Why? Because, in particular, young people in Romania simply love online shopping. Shopping is exciting for them and the internet is the place that buries boundaries. E-shops allow Romanians to buy goods that are often not available in Romania.

The most common age group of online shoppers are young people aged 25-35. An interesting fact is that almost 85% of all shoppers come from urban areas. Think of this information when targeting your ads. 54% of online shoppers are men and 46% are women. One of the most powerful marketing channels in Romania is Facebook - especially in segments that are also visually attractive (fashion, home & decor ...)

Even in Romania, online shoppers like to buy the goods personally at the shop or deliver them to delivery point. However, if you do not have a showroom yet, it's important that you have a perfectly managed local support in Romanian. A great advantage will be a local collection point where your customers can return the goods if needed.

What do Romanians like to buy?

Romanian customers, as well as most European consumers, buy electronics most often. They spend on average 185 EUR per purchase. Next comes home & decor - 55 EUR, child care is 50 EUR and the smallest value is in fashion - 37 EUR.

Brands vs. Non-branded

If you think that Romanians are burdened with cheap and less quality products, you are mistaken. On the contrary. In the case of Romanian customers, there is already a bit of e-commerce cliché that "the further to east, the more expensive goods."

Branded, more luxurious goods are rare for Romanian customers, as there are not many great opportunities for buying such goods, except in Bucharest.

Number of e-shops in Romania, preferred forms of payment

There are only 5,500 online stores in Romania (!). When compared, for example, with the Czech, where there are about 35,000 e-shops, the difference is really remarkable. E-commerce in Romania was worth € 1.8 billion last year, which corresponds to a 30% increase compared to 2015. E-commerce is one of the few Romanian markets that grow steadily every year.

With online purchases, Romanian customers strongly prefer a pay on delivery (90%). It is followed by card payments (6-7%) and other types of payments like internetbanking, micro-payments via sms and others (3-4%).

Online payments are also copying western trends. E.g. online card payments in Romania grew by 45% year-on-year. Most of these payments were made by local providers of RomCard and Netopia mobilPay.

The main shopping categories in 2016:

*Electro / IT (PC & PC Components, Laptops, Tablets, Mobile Phones, Home Appliances
*Fashion (clothing, footwear, fashion accessories, cosmetics, perfumes, watches)
*Home & Decor
*Childcare (from toys to children's goods such as strollers, clothing)
 

What days do Romanians buy most often?

Statistically most Romanians shop online on a regular basis on Wednesdays and Thursday, they demand mainly a free delivery. Of course, every discount and action will only boost your sales and will please the customer.

Repayment/replacement of goods free of charge also perceived as a major benefit, although Romanian legislation stipulates that the cost of returning/exchanging goods must be borne by the buyer. These benefits are often used as a marketing tool by domestic online shops as they are aware of their positive impact on sales. Therefore, it is necessary to work with these actions quite often.

Trends and expectations of Romanian customers shopping online

The second-day delivery has been a matter of course for a couple of years now. In Romania, this speed is seen as an upcoming trend. Courier companies continue to improve their services, and delivering on the second day is gradually becoming a part of Romanian e-commerce.

Responsive website? In Romania, necessity.

Romanians are very trendy people. They like brands, innovations, technology. E-shops need to be optimized for viewing through smartphones. So, mcommerce is the newest trend. While the penetration of smartphones in Romania in 2015 was 50%, this figure rose to 70% in 2016. This means that more and more Romanians are buying smartphones, most of them using it for online shopping and viewing e-commerce products.

The most visited Romanian e-shops have seen a significant increase in their site traffic from mobile devices when more than 50% of e-commerce visits came from smartphone or tablet last year.

But not only the number of visits from mobile devices, the number of orders is also increasing. In 2015, 25% to 30% of orders in e-commerce came from mobile devices, but at the end of last year, mobile sales were 35% to 40% of all online purchases in Romania.

Thanks to the above mentioned facts, the Romanian online market is one of the popular expansion markets for all online shop owners.