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Trade: Study: Online food sales paid by card will grow by 13% this year
Online food and beverage sales may grow by 13% in 2014 to 27 million lei (6 million euro) representing 1.5% of overall online trade paid by card, according to Euromonitor data, which show that Romanians prefer to buy those products from traditional shops.
“Online food trade is hardly visible in Romania and this situation in not expected to change significantly during the prognosis period (2013-2017). Online retail food sales will develop slowly in the analysed period , considering that most Romanian consumers prefer to buy food from traditional stores,” Euromonitor estimates.
However, retail non-food product sales on the Internet are expected to grow constantly during the prognosis period, mainly for electronic appliances and video games, household appliances, clothes, cosmetics and pet food.
According to quoted source, electronic equipment and video games have the biggest share of online trade with sales estimated at 484.2 million lei this year, on the rise by 12.6%, followed by furniture, house decorations and accessories with sales of 212 million lei, 15% higher, media products with sales of 202 million lei, on the rise by 22.9%, clothes and footwear with online sales of 179.1 million lei, 10% higher than in 2013.
Important shares in the value of online trade are held by toys, whose sales are estimated to grow by 23.3% to 64.3 million lei, household appliances – 53.9 million lei and an increase of 34.1%, cosmetics -40.5 million lei and an increase of 15% and do it yourself and gardening products -38.1 million lei and a growth of 23%.
“On the overall, Internet retail trade in Romania will grow at a constant rate of 10% over 2013-2017. Broadband Internet connections continue to penetrate and grow in Romania, an evolution which backs the popularity of online trade too. Moreover, the development of online retail will be based on the high comfort level offered to busy consumers in Romania,” Euromonitor mentions.
Euromonitor estimates online trade in Romania at 1.7 billion lei (386 million euro) this year, 11.8% more than in 2013.
According to the source, Internet trade is popular among young consumers especially in urban areas.
Euromonitor shows that most retailers of non food products in Romania also have online stores, as an extension of traditional activities. The top of the first online retailers includes eMag (Dante International), Corsar Online, Romtelecom, Altex Romania, Flanco International and Domo Retail.
Big FMCG retailers have started completing their operations with online trade. Carrefour was the first big retailers which launched an online hypermarket in July 2013 and says that after 6 months it has reached the maximum delivery capacity. The service is available for Bucharest with home deliveries and payment by card.Cora opened Coradrive hypermarket in December 2013 for products bought online which could be picked up from the store and announced home deliveries to begin this year.
At the end of 2013, Mega Image, the biggest supermarket network in Romania announced it would inaugurate home deliveries in the first quarter of 2014, while Selgros started online trade by partnership with online supply services megamarket.ro.
Metro cash & carry network has online stores for office equipment and supplies, electronic equipment, household appliances, IT, cleaning and protocol addressed to companies.
Euromonitor shows that data in its report are for products bought online by card, the total value of online trade in Romania being higher if we consider that most consumers prefer payment upon delivery.
“The general confidence level among Romanian consumers for online payments is low, but an increase of consumers’ interest for online payments is expected,” Euromonitor shows.
The online trade penetration rate is estimated at 20.6% in 2013 compared to 16.4% in 2010.