MerchantPro Compass H1 2025: eCommerce holds steady under pressure, with +2% growth and a shift toward efficiency

After a 2024 marked by adaptation and consolidation, Romanian eCommerce entered 2025 with a more restrained dynamic. According to MerchantPro Compass, the biannual analysis conducted by MerchantPro, a SaaS eCommerce platform supporting over 2,000 active online stores—the first half of this year confirms a paradigm shift: it’s no longer about how much you sell, but about how efficiently you do it.

In H1 2025, online stores within the MerchantPro ecosystem recorded a +2% increase in sales revenue compared to the same period in 2024. Meanwhile, the number of orders saw a slight drop of -0.3%. In this context, the average order value increased by +2.4%, stabilizing around 55 EUR, a clear sign that merchants are prioritizing the optimization of each transaction over sheer volume.

While Q1 showed slight acceleration, with a +3.7% increase in sales and +0.6% in order volume versus the same quarter last year, Q2 brought a visible slowdown: only +0.8% in sales and a -1% decline in volume. This dynamic clearly suggests the market is entering a phase of forced maturity, where operational agility, cost efficiency, and customer retention become critical priorities for online businesses.

At the same time, local merchants are facing growing pressure from global players, especially platforms from Asia, which have aggressively expanded in Central and Eastern Europe over the past 12 months. Extremely low prices, sustained promotional campaigns, and increasingly faster deliveries, often accompanied by a lack of fiscal constraints comparable to those imposed on local merchants (such as VAT), create a difficult-to-manage imbalance.

This reality is further amplified by the new fiscal measures introduced in the recently adopted legislative package in Romania, which adds additional pressure on local entrepreneurs and indirectly reduces the resources available for automation, digitalization, or customer loyalty initiatives.

Against this backdrop, a legitimate question arises: how can Romanian eCommerce grow sustainably in the second half of the year?

According to MerchantPro representatives, local merchants are focusing on efficiency, not expansion. Process automation, better integration between sales channels, and optimization of fulfillment and customer support operations are becoming mandatory investments. However, efficiency alone is not enough without an institutional framework that ensures fair competitiveness.

“Romanian merchants operate in a complex and somewhat unpredictable fiscal and logistical environment, while non-EU players can bypass significant costs that are essential for the sustainability of the local ecosystem. That’s why Romanian eCommerce needs not only technological innovation, but also a fair, regulated, and predictable environment. A unified VAT policy and real controls over cross-border markets could help rebalance the competitive landscape,” explains