CONTEXT:

• After a pandemic that lifted it to heights faster than expected, the e-commerce market continues to grow. The lifting of pandemic restrictions has increased the consumption of experiences – vacations, concerts, plane tickets.
• The market continues to grow, but it is not without challenges and difficulties in the new macroeconomic context.
• With rising inflation, increased costs, more expensive transport services, amid fuel price advances, but also with problems in supply chains accentuated during the conflict in Ukraine and blockages on the Chinese route, e-commerce is revising its the prospects in the next period.

E-commerce – the main source of supply

• At the same time, many merchants, both from the area of traditional ones, with physical stores, as well as those already present on the online sales market, began to invest more and more in the digitization of processes, in order to remain relevant. In Romania, the preference for home delivery services still prevails, compared to other countries, but deliveries to fixed points are also increasing.
• With a 13% increase at European level in 2021, up to 718 billion euros, e-commerce has demonstrated that it has become even more firmly anchored in the economy and society, after during the COVID-19 pandemic it represented for many people the main source of supply.

Romania registers almost half of online sales in Eastern Europe

• In Romania, the e-commerce turnover was estimated at 6.2 billion euros in 2021, up 11% compared to 2020, and for 2022 the sector is estimated to grow by 13%, up to 7 billion Of euro. Thus, sales made in Romania last year represented almost half of the total made in Eastern Europe, estimated at 14 billion euros.
• However, consumers changed their purchasing preferences, and the military conflict in Ukraine generated, in the first weeks, a gridlock, where everyone was waiting to see what would happen.
• The situation of uncertainty was quickly followed by increased inflation, problems in supply chains, the lack of certain raw materials and materials.

85% of Romanian shoppers say that online purchases help them save time

• Although still difficult to assess, the war in Ukraine is indicated to have major consequences for the European economy, as well as for e-commerce markets, amid declining purchasing power and consumer confidence, mainly due to high prices in energy, inflation and uncertainty about the future, including a new recession.
• At this moment, 85% of Romanian shoppers say that online shopping helps them save time, 69% that it helps them save money, and 76% that it helps them avoid the stress caused by shopping in traditional stores.
• If until 2019 traditional trade was the majority, and in 2020 e-commerce came to the fore, 2022 is the time when we must learn to combine the two purchasing methods.

DISCUSSION TOPICS:

• Data analysis regarding market evolution and prospects for the next period;
• How can the uncertainty generated by price increases and the conflict in neighbors over the buying trend be overcome?
• How can the supply problems be solved as best as possible to develop the business?
• How is consumer behavior changing and how can you adapt quickly?
• How can you effectively combine the online sales channel with the physical store?
• How can you attract more customers by taking advantage of the lifting of restrictions?
• Innovations in technology that change the e-commerce market;
• Challenges for delivery services;
• Funding for the adaptation of sales to the digital environment.

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