| ONLINE SHOPPING, A NEW FASHION IN ROMANIA 18/11/2009 |
| Last updated: 2009-11-19 16:35 EET |
Quality, prices, accessibility and time are some of the reasons invoked by the Romanians who decide to do their shopping online. The number of online shoppers has risen by almost 100% as compared to 2008, despite the economic crisis. The number of online shops has also risen. The number of online shopping sites created in a single year exceeds the cumulated number of sites created in 3 or 4 years. While 140,000 transactions were made in 2008, the number of online sales exceeded 250,000 in 2009. Another interesting statistics shows that while only 400,000 cards were used in Romania more than 10 years ago, today there are over 12 million active cards used for payment.
On the Internet you can buy almost anything you want and at any price. Online shopping is an expanding market and Romanians have started to get used to it. The highest growth was reported in the areas of tourism and transport, in terms of ticketing or booking hotels and restaurants. Payment of bills is another field in which growth has been reported as compared to 2008, not to mention the sale of IT products. Another interesting growth is reported in the entertainment field when it comes to the sale of tickets for music shows and football games. Other products bought online are presents, flowers, toys and even books. Paul Balog, the manager of an online book shop has more:
“Despite the crisis we have seen in 2009, online sales have grown significantly. The online sales market is obviously growing, especially in the book sales segment where a 20% growth has been registered.”
Although their sites include much information about online payment, e-sales experts say they expect the banks to be the first to notify customers about the safe lines they can use to make their payments. This is because most Romanians prefer to pay on delivery and few pay by card, says Radu Apostolescu, the marketing manager of the online IT shop Emag:
“I’ll give you a very good example. Based on last year’s results our shop has become, at present, the largest specialised retailer of IT products. We are even better than the national shop networks. I believe this example speaks volumes of the online trade in Romania in 2009. People prefer payment on delivery and most shops have adjusted to people’s preferences. Payment by card does not exceed 5% although it is a very safe payment tool, but in Romania it has not been promoted enough by the banks that issue such cards. Our customer data base includes several hundreds of thousands of customers across the country”.
Generally people are content with online payment. Some prefer to buy online from home because temptations would be very big if they went directly to the shop. A tour of the supermarket would make them spend too much on things they don’t really need and which are not on their shopping list. Others prefer online shopping because they don’t have time and because they have the possibility to compare prices in several shops. Ghiurel Cheamil is a young man who works very long hours:
“I buy online because I don’t have enough time on my hands. It takes a shorter while to search for a product on the Internet. For example, if I want to buy a certain product, in only 5 minutes I can look for it in at least 3 or 4 online shops, which you cannot possibly do in the regular shops. Moreover, prices are lower by 20 to 30% than the prices they have in normal shops. Last year I bought a laptop. The same laptop was 30% more expensive in a normal shops while on the Internet prices varied from one site to another. I found a company in Ploiesti where I found the cheapest laptop and they delivered it to me.”
Ileana Glodeanu has recently opened an online shop for babies and children up to 16 years old; she sells top brands from the world market which she carefully selects and which she sells at affordable prices:
“In my shop you’ll find clothes, blankets, towels for babies and for older children. You’ll also find shoes with soft soles made of ecological leather. It is something new on the Romanian market. You’ll also find other products for children’s body care and child-friendly cleaning substances. We import the clothes from Great Britain, Germany and the US, actually we have made a selection of the best products on the market.”
Although online shopping is expanding in Romania, things are different when Romanians want to buy things from abroad. In fact, according to a report by the European Commission, Romanians, alongside Bulgarians, Belgians and Lithuanians still have problems shopping online abroad.
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2010-09-10
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