Eastern European ecommerce to grow to €23bln in 2014

The ecommerce industry in Eastern Europe is expected to reach 23 billion euros worth of sales in 2014. In absolute numbers, this region may not be top notch, but when we consider the average growth rate of 47% over the year 2013, the ecommerce market in Eastern Europe is showing the strongest increase in Europe.

But nonetheless, there’s still a lot that has to happen in this region, as only 34 million of 135 million Internet users (25%) go online shopping. This is revealed by Ecommerce Europe’s latest report on the B2C ecommerce industry in Eastern Europe. In total, the Eastern European region consists of Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Moldova, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, FYR Macedonia and Serbia, but Ecommerce Europe included only in-depth analyses of the three largest markets of this region: Russia, Ukraine and Romania.

Russia is once again the biggest in the region
With an online turnover of 15.5 million euros, Russia is once again the biggest ecommerce industry of the region. It also has the largest online population (with 84 million Internet users) and with 24 million online shoppers it represents the lion’s share of 80% of Eastern Europe’s total ecommerce market, consisting of 34 million online shoppers. In Russia, the average online spending per online shopper was 646 euros in 2013. Ukraine is another big ecommerce country in Eastern Europe. It ranked second with total online sales of 1.8 billion euros, while the average online expenditure per online shopper was €617 per e-shopper. The country was followed by Romania (€1.0 billion), which had an average online spending per online shopper of 400 euros last year. As the total turnover in this European region grew by 47% over the year 2013, that year 34 million shoppers bought products and services online worth €19.3 billion. This represents 7% of the total European ecommerce industry.

Russia strongest ecommerce growth and highest internet penetration
Back in 2012, it was Ukraine that realized the strongest ecommerce growth and Romania that had the highest penetration. But now the roles have changes. Russia passed both countries in these categories last year. Ukraine still grew by 48%, but it was Russia with an ecommerce growth of 50.5% that ended first. And with 59% of the Russian population that was connected to the Internet last year, the country surpasses Bulgaria (56%), Romania (55%) and Ukraine (50%).

See also:
Northern European ecommerce to grow to €36.8bn
Southern European ecommerce to grow to €47.8bn