Study: A third of Romanian urban internet users buy online

GfK Romania, together with ePayment, make public the conclusion of a study that shows that almost 30% of Romanian urban consumers are buying online.

According to the study, 28% of Romanian urban internet users brought something online during the last year. Also, a quarter of the online shoppers do that at least once a month.

Romanian young people are the most avid online shoppers. From them, the ones aged 18-24 y.o (37%) are the ones that buy more often online, as the rhytm of online buying decreases with the age (31% for 25-34y.o. and 24% for the ones aged 34-44 y.o.

In terms of gender, the proportions are almost equal, while the people from Bucharest and the ones with superior education brought more online (36%, respectiv 40%).

Romanian urban internet users are buying the most online electronics, appliances, phones (44%), clothes and accesories (28%), but also personal care products (22%) or books, CDs and DVDs (22%).

The most used ways to pay online are cash at package delivery (83%). Although still shy, the online payments through credit card start to be popular also, being on the 2nd place in terms of usage in the last 12 months and used by 28% of urban internet users.

Certainly, the internet shopping becomes more and more popular. In spite of that, internet’s role in buying products goes beyond the online order. For example, many consumers are getting online information regarding the products they intend to buy and, afterwards, a part of them chose to buy the products in traditional stores (offline)

Traian Nastase,

Online Project Manager GfK Romania.

According to ePayment, the main online payments agregator in Romania, in the first 10 months of 2011, the number of Romanians that made online buys through credit card increased 10% compared to the same period last year. Most of the orders were placed during the week (81%), between 10.00 – 18.00 (54%), 80% of them being located in Bucharest.

When it is about payments through credit card, most common are sales of touristic products and services, telecoms and services. In 2011, significant increases compared to 2010 were also registered for online flower sales (75%), online book sales (76%) and gifts (64%).

 During the last year, we saw a diversification in products brought online and paid via credit card. This thing, cumulated with a decrease of the medium transaction compared to 3-4 years ago, and the increase in transactions shows that people are getting used to online payments and start using this payment method more often also when it comes of normal shopping

Mihai Manoliu

Sales Manager ePayment, PayU Group.

GfK study was made on a group of 671 people, is representative for urban internet users and has an error range of  +/- 3.7%. The data from ePayment come from online through banking card payments processed through its own system.