PayPal’s “Brand Availability in CEE”: Romanians and CEE consumers want small prices and products available

Cristina Blanaru e-Commerce, Marketing, Studies

Romanians and most CEE consumers are looking for small prices and product that aren’t available on their own markets, according to PayPal’s “Brand Availibility in CEE” survey, that analyzed answers from 12,000PayPal’s users in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary.

Two most noticeable conclusions of the report are as following: the growing number of low-cost transactions abroad (less than 100RON) and the increasing role of Asia as a popular shopping destination

Low-cost transactions have been so far characteristic for local market. The change suggests growing trust towards online shopping regardless of seller’s place of residence. Small amount shopping also proves market maturity. That also means that internet users feel comfortable and safe enough to make less significant, everyday shopping online and that they buy digital goods such as music, press or computer games. Second trend is a growing importance of Asian market when it comes to online shopping. The cultural and distance gap between CEE and Asia is no longer an issue. Depending on the category, virtual shopping is chosen by 25% in Romania and in the region.

Damien Perillat,

Regional Manager PayPal Central and Eastern Europe.

Close to half of Romanian respondents (44%) choose online shopping abroad mostly due to lower price, a characteristic they share with other nations in the CEE region. Second most important reason for choosing foreign online shops for Romanians is that they want specific version of products not available in their country (17.5%) or the fact that a certain brand or model is not available on Romanian market (17.1%). From brand availability point of view, Romanian market is similar to Polish, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak ones.

When buying abroad and besides various products (55%), Romanians aim for electronics (37.54 %), followed by digital products and software (31%), clothes (17.67%), jewellery & watches (13.27%) and perfumes and cosmetics – below 10 %.

According to study, most Romanians spend over 900 RON for online buys (39%), followed by Romanian consumers that spend between RON 100-299 for online shopping and the ones that spend RON 700-899 to buy online via PayPal. When it comes of big online spending, Romania and Slovakia lead the pack in CEE (39%), followed by Czech Republic (33%) and Hungary (26%), and Poland (22%).

Three quarters of Romanian PayPal users surveyed (75%) graduated University or post universitary studies and most live in urban areas. Almost a third of Romanian PayPal users (32%) are shopping online abroad a couple times a quarter, while almost a fifth (17%) are buying online from abroad more often than once a month. Almost a third (32%) are shopping online abroad at least couple times a quarter, almost a fifth (18,7% ) are shopping abroad once every half of year, while the rest are shopping online abroad once a month, once a year or less often than that.