What do Romanians buy online and how much money do they spend?

More than half of Romanians who have access to the Internet, almost 6 million users, bought online at least once a month in the last year, up 9 percent over the same period in 2016-2017, a study by GPeC and iSense Solutions reveals.

While 53 percent of people who have access to the Internet have purchased a particular product online, over the last 12 months online shopping has become more popular for new customer categories, the highest increase from 36 percent to 51 percent being among those aged 45-54 years.

According to the survey, Romanians buy online from the shops they are used to. Thus, as in the period 2016-2017, the Romanians visited, on average, nine stores, with a frequency of 3-4 times a week. The main reasons for online purchases remain the same: shorter time, the possibility to compare prices from different stores and a growing variety of products.

At the same time, 65 percent of the respondents mentioned that they do not trust that the products presented on the sites correspond to the reality, and 58 percent of the Romanians choose to buy from the physical stores in order to be able to choose and test the products on the spot the products they want.

Electronics and home appliances, clothing and fashion accessories, computers and laptops, as well as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, are the products that have been best sold online in the last 12 months.

As regards the online payments with the card, over three quarters of Romanians (76 percent) choose in 2018 to pay in cash when receiving the package, the ratio being constant with that of 2016-2017, and 78 percent respectively. Card payments record an increase of 5 percentage points this year, to 55 percent, from 50 percent in the previous year.