Romania, EU champion in e-commerce

By Emea Riga
In the most difficult year for modern trade, Romania will manage to maintain its first position in the top of the countries with the most important increases in e-commerce in the entire European Union. The conclusion was expressed by Luca Cassetti, Secretary General of Ecommerce Europe, during the conference organized by the Romanian Association of Online Stores (ARMO), on the occasion of the first edition of the National Day of Electronic Commerce.
Eastern Europe marks, moreover, the most important evolution on the continent, of about 27%. Romania exceeds this average, the growth estimates being at least 30% by the end of the year. However, in order for this advance to be sustained, better digital skills are needed, given that only 2 out of 10 Romanians who use the Internet regularly have made online purchases in the last year.
“E-commerce has kept the economy open and moving throughout the pandemic. More and more companies, but also entrepreneurs, who relied exclusively on a physical presence, realized the advantages of the online sector, so they migrated to this channel “, says Florinel Chiş, executive director of ARMO.
The pandemic has not only developed the e-commerce sector, but also the accelerated digitization, especially of public institutions. The number of digital signatures increased from 500,000 to 720,000 in the first part of the year, while, according to Cosmin Vladimirescu, Country Manager Mastercard, electronic payments registered an unprecedented increase in our country: from 353 million payments in the quarter 2 of 2019 to 395 million payments in the same period of this year. Regarding the mobile wallet option, the increase is 145% (September 2019 / September 2020).
The degree of adoption of card payments has also reached a single threshold so far, of almost 60% in large cities, while in the pre-pandemic it was at most 30%. 38% of Romanians make card payments at POS weekly, and 16% use it daily.