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Online shopping in Romania – more popular but still considered risky
2009-10-28
Conclusions of the most recent study on e-commerce
Fifty percent of Romanian internet users have shopped online, which means that the percentage of e-clients in this country has increased by 22% over the last 3 years. Despite the growing popularity of e-commerce, almost 50% of internet users remain suspicious about buying anything online. These are the main conclusions of a recent Romanian e-commerce research study conducted by Gemius in partnership with Orange.
Romania, where the internet penetration rate in 2008 amounted to 36% , is a country of shopping enthusiasts. More than two thirds of Romanian internet users have a positive attitude towards shopping, while only 6% dislike or detest it. This result distinguishes Romania from such countries as Lithuania and Poland, where one in five internet users are set against shopping.
The positive attitude toward shopping displayed by Romanian internet users has an influence on the rising percentage of online shoppers. As shown by the results of the study, 50% of respondents admitted to having purchased something online. The growth in the number of online shoppers over the last 3 years was spectacular: an increase of 22%.
Despite the growing popularity of e-commerce, Romanian internet users still believe online purchases to be risky. One might expect that the longer internet users benefit from e-commerce, the lesser their fear about online transactions will be. Yet they are still perceived as risky by almost 50% of internet users. This constitutes a 4% increase compared to 2006. Moreover, the risks of buying via the internet seems the greatest concern of respondents when asked about their opinion on e-shopping.
“Even if the market has matured and increasingly more internet users are buying online, the perception of internet purchase as being risky has not improved. On the contrary, compared to the 2006 study, the number of people who considered online shopping risky has increased. This is mainly due to the increase in IT crime and the fact that many online buyers have encountered problems when they have purchased from online stores”, says Catalin Emilian, Operations Manager Gemius Research SRL.
Nearly half of Romanian internet users (47%) shop online several times a year and, as the results of the study show, one third of e-shop and auction customers plan to shop just as frequently as they have been doing up to now. A further 35% declared they will perform online transactions more frequently, which is possibly a good perspective for e-commerce in this country bearing in mind that in the previous year (2008), 43% declared that they would buy more frequently. What does this mean for the future of online shopping in Romania?
“The Romanian e-commerce market still has a lot of potential for growth. We can observe that the perception of online shopping has not changed significantly compared to last year. E-shops should pay more attention to ensuring safe online payments and competitive offers. Still, word-of-mouth marketing is a very powerful and not yet fully exploited tool. E-tailers cannot neglect the role of customer reviews as well as extensive information provided by users on forums and social networks,” explains Monika Lasota, International Business Development Manager Gemius SA.
“Despite this year’s economic context, we recorded a significant increase in the number of transactions in the Orange online shop. This positive evolution owes much to our exclusive offers, the new one shop reshape, which was undertaken with the direct involvement of users, as well as the expansion of delivery methods for Orange products and services which include in-store delivery for new subscriptions, free delivery with the Romanian Post Office for Prepay SIM”, says Andreea Belenes, Online Manager Orange Romania.
Download the complete version of the press release in the Word format
Contact:
Catalin Emilian - catalin.emilian@gemius.com