More Romanians purchase products online in 2013, study shows

The share of Romanians buying products online has increased from 4.8 percent in 2011 to over 7 percent in 2013, according to a study carried out by Daedalus Millward Brown. Some 75 percent of the respondents intend to buy products online from hypermarkets and supermarkets. In this context, more retailers have opened online shops. Carrefour officially launched its online hypermarket last year, the service being available for Bucharest and surrounding cities. In December, Cora also opened its Coradrive hypermarket, through which customers can buy the products online, taking them later from the store. Mega Image also plans to inaugurate its home delivery service this year, while the most recent announcement was made by Selgros, which entered the online trade through a partnership with MegaMarket.ro. In terms of online transactions by Romanians, paying utility bills is the most common (some 42 percent), followed by buying clothing/footwear (37.8 percent), electronics (37.4 percent), cosmetics / perfumes (34 percent), household appliances (some 31 percent), mobile telephony products and services (28.8 percent) and computer/computer parts (28.4 percent). Romanians also purchase other products online, such as books, newspapers, magazines, toys, games, tickets to concerts, food, or movies. Significant increases in online sales compared to 2011 were registered for household appliances, software/games, food, computer/computer parts and toys. Over 77 percent of the respondents prefer home delivery, the rest choosing to pick up products from the stores. The most used payment forms are payment at delivery (almost 80 percent), credit card (34.9 percent) and transfer via online banking (18 percent). The average amount paid for online products is EUR 281, down from EUR 312 in 2011. Some of the main reasons why Romanians don’t buy online are the lack of confidence in a product before seeing it, not feeling safe to use card data on the Internet, or the lack of a credit card. The study was conducted in urban areas on people aged between 18 and 64. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com