Increasing e-commerce transactions and higher online spending at five months in 2014

E-commerce has been rapidly advancing in recent years, the trend being preserved in 2014, too, when the accelerated growth rate has been maintained, according to online payment processor PayU. The data processed within the first five months of the year shows a 30 percent increase in terms of transactions with Romanian e-tailers followed by online payment. Also, based on its estimations, there are about 70 online orders being placed every minute, totaling some 10,800 lei (nearly 2,500 euro).

A 20 percent increase was also recorded as regards the average amount spent on an online transaction. PayU indicates that unlike the past three years when the average value of a shopping cart was negatively impacted by a diversification of the range of products purchased online, the first five months of the year brought a 20 percent growth year-on-year. Although improvement is visible on all segments, the most significant development was generated by tourism, toys and IT&C with growth of 52 percent, 25 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

“Progress in all segments reveals an increasing users’ confidence in online stores and an understanding of the benefits of online shopping (...) Advance on some segments, such as toys, where the average value exceeds even that recorded in fashion and is closing the IT&C one, is another clue which shows us that online shopping is no longer an exception, but a common habit in lives of a growing number of people”, explains Cristina Vranceanu, Strategic Partnerships Executive PayU Romania, as per a press release. According to her, 30,000 new users are registered each month in their system, for the major part of them, the first online shopping experience being not singular.

The predilection Romanians have for technology, confirmed by the increasing sales of smartphones and tablets, is also reflected into e-commerce, as about 20 percent of the online orders are placed using such a gadget. Furthermore, half of these orders are followed by online payment completed through same devices. Most online payments made through smartphones or tablets are sent towards fashion stores (about 15 percent of them), yet highest yoy growth are seen in telecoms and utilities segments. While in 2013 telecoms accounted for 2 percent of these payments, in 2014, the online payment rate went up to 8 percent, similarly to the utilities field (6 percent in 2014 compared to 0.7 percent last year).

Along with the evolution in terms of transactions completed using a mobile device, there is also an improvement with respect to embracing alternative payment methods, PayU observes.

“Thus, credit cards, which started to be increasingly used in the last year and a half, are growing in terms of payment preference, recording a monthly growth rate of about 10 percent, while transactions completed through iTransfer – payment via internet banking with instant confirmation, offered by PayU – increase by 30 percent each month”,  states the mentioned press release.

PayU is the main online payments processor in Romania, being part of the PayU Group, online payments service integrator with operations in Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey. The group is controlled by the South African group Naspers, whose portfolio also includes eMAG or Fashion Days.