The e-commerce market in Eastern Europe is estimated to have grown 32% to €19.3 billion in 2013and has “enormous” growth potential due to the still low levels of online shopping in the region,
according to new figures from Ecommerce Europe.Last year’s growth was the strongest increase compared to other European regions. Yet only 27 of106 million internet users are using the internet for shopping in the region at present, thee-commerce umbrella association for online retailers pointed out.
In 2012, the Eastern European e-commerce market grew by a remarkable 35.7% generating a totalvalue of €13.1 billion from goods and services sold online in the region. This represented 7% oftotal European online sales.
The region, which comprises Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Moldova, Belarus,Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, FYR Macedonia and Serbia, is the fastest growing e-commercemarket in Europe along with Southern Europe, Ecommerce Europe said.
Russia is the strongest e-commerce market in Eastern Europe with sales reaching €10.3 billion in2012, followed by Ukraine (€1.2 billion) and Romania (€0.8 billion).
Often referred to as the “sleeping giant”, Russia is already far ahead of the other countries inthe region with the largest online population of 68 million internet users and 20 million onlineshoppers generating a majority share of 78.5% in the region’s total e-commerce market. In 2012,Russian shoppers spent on average €515 on the internet, closely followed by Ukrainians with €510leaving behind the Romanians with €400 spent per shopper.
In terms of growth, however, the Ukrainian e-commerce market is far ahead of all othere-commerce markets in the region with an average growth of 47% in 2012, outperforming its regionalneighbours Russia (35.5%) and Romania (33.3%).
When it comes to internet penetration, Romania is at the forefront with a 54% share of thepopulation, followed by Bulgaria with 51%. Russia and Ukraine are ranked third with 50%respectively.
“There is a lot of potential in the Eastern European e-commerce market. First of all, only 27million of 162 million inhabitants are shopping online – a percentage bound to increase onceinternet penetration is picking up pace. As demand rises across this region, logistic services willimprove, enabling retailers to serve also the less urbanised areas. Especially in a country likeRussia, this opens up a market of millions of new customers”, Wijnand Jongen, Chair StatisticalBoard Ecommerce Europe, said.
Within the next few weeks, the association plans to publish the remaining regional report onCentral Europe with an outlook on 2013 projections. The Ecommerce Europe figures are based on theEuropean Measurement Standard for Ecommerce (EMSEC).
