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Click and buy – e-commerce in Romania
2007-04-26
It cannot be denied that the Internet is quickly becoming one of the most powerful medium. It has already changed the way people communicate, learn and... do the shopping. Nearly one third of Internet users from Romania use online stores or auction portals as a place for purchasing various goods.
To respond to the growing need of knowledge in the e-commerce market Gemius research on the attitudes and preferences of Internet users towards online shopping in several countries of Central and Eastern Europe: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, and the Ukraine. The study deals with the subject of favourite products bought on the Internet, the frequency of shopping and purchase intent. It reveals also a ranking of e-shops and auction sites.
Cautious fans of online shopping
As a result of the project carried out in Romania, Gemius got to know that contrary to the extremely high awareness of online shopping (97% of all respondents heard about it), only 29% of all Internet users have ever made an online purchase. It is even more surprising when respondents’ declarations of positive attitude towards shopping are considered- 65% of them like or even love this way of spending time.
What is the reason for this cautiousness? A deep insight into the opinions on e-commerce gives the answer to this question. 44% of Internet users (who have heard about shopping on the Internet) consider this medium risky as far as financial transactions are concerned. Six percent of those, who have ever done shopping on the Internet, admitted that the higher security of payments would make them buy more frequently. Improvement in the security of delivery would also increase the frequency of shopping (among 6% of the surveyed e-shoppers).
Saving time and money
In addition to the small number of e-shoppers, most of them are far from purchasing online on everyday basis - only 15% do it more or less once a week. However 42% of those who have ever done shopping on the Internet admitted that they are going to buy on the Web more frequently. An important incentive would be the improvement of their own financial situation as well as special offers, discounts and lower prices. Taking into account what Internet users usually buy online, this is no surprise. The most popular products bought in online shops are phones and accessories (29%) and, in the case of auctions, computers (39%). As those products are generally rather expensive, it is essential for e-shoppers that they can buy cheaper via Internet. All in all, the Web is associated with saving money and time. 42% of Internet users admitted that it takes less time than buying in traditional shops. It is worth adding that for 11% of all respondents saving time and for 21% saving money is one of the most important criteria while buying.
Online shops versus auctions
As far as the behaviour of Romanian e-shoppers is concerned, they generally prefer online stores to auctions. The domestic market edged up to 26% for the former, while auctions maintain at the level of 5%. Moreover, these two places are perceived differently by Internet users. The reasons for buying in online shops are: home delivery (42% of respondents who have done shopping in online stores) and saving the time (40%), while in case of auctions, it is the fact that you can find goods difficult to come across in other places (55% of respondents who have done shopping in online auctions) and order at any time (47%). The e-shoppers buy also different products in online shops and at auctions. They usually buy phones, accessories (29% of Internet users shopping in online stores) and books, CDs, films (27%) in the former, whilst in the latter they most of all buy: computers (39% of Internet users who have ever done shopping in online auctions), phones and accessories (37%), clothes and jewellery (36%).
The popularity of online shops over auctions is not an unexpected phenomenon, taking into account the importance of security for e-customers. 36% of visitors to online shops mentioned higher security (comparing to auctions) as the main advantage of online shops. Contrary, 49% of Internet users participating in auctions mentioned an easier procedure leading to the purchase to be a great advantage of auctions.
To sum up, as there is a clear intention of e-shoppers to buy online, the future of e-commerce seems to be bright. In order to promote the expansion of online shopping, security should be guaranteed. As saving of time is also very important for customers, quick delivery of products should would be a welcome advantage. Last, but not least, online shops and auctions should pay more attention to information about the products they offer. Fulfilling all these conditions would speed up the development of the e-commerce market in Romania and result in higher satisfaction of the customers.
About the research: The research has been conducted with the use of pop-up questionnaires sent randomly to the Internet users between 10th and 17th of October 2006. The sample of 1474 respondents was cleaned accordingly with the Gemius’ standard and afterwards weighted with the use of structural data provided by Mercury Research. The findings are representative in terms of age, gender and frequency of Internet usage for the whole Romanian Internet population 15+.
Gemius Research SRL – subsidiary of Gemius SA founded in 2005. The company is operating on Romanian market, where offers all the Gemius research products. So far was cooperating with local publishers as Rol.ro, Vodanet and agencies like Media Investment.
Gemius SA - the largest online research agency in Central and Eastern Europe. The company has been dedicated to Internet market research since its founding in 1999. Resulting from its efforts to maximize trustiness, authenticity and accuracy, Gemius is already present in several countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.
Download a complete version of the press release in a Word file.
For more info concerning the study, please contact Catalin Emilian from Gemius Research SRL: catalin.emilian@gemius.ro.