The e-commerce market in the Republic of Moldova is estimated at approximately 320 million euros per year, noted Felicia Jereghi, Managing Director at Indigo Group. According to her, recent research has indicated that there are premises for this figure to increase fivefold in the next three years, driven by domestic consumption.
Currently, 1.8 million Moldovans are present online, with just over half a million of them making online purchases. The share of the latter is increasing, providing ground for accelerated development.
The annual shopping volume per capita is 155 euros, or four times less than in Romania, and in a few years, it could eliminate this disparity, emphasized Felicia Jereghi.
In the last 12 months, Romania recorded a total sales volume of 71.6 billion euros, of which 4.3 billion euros were online, specified Oana Dumitrescu, Industry Head & Retail Lead at Google.
In the Republic of Moldova, there are about 1,700 online stores, while in Romania, this figure is approximately 60,000, stated Andrei Radu, CEO & Founder, GPeC.
Online commerce is growing three times faster than offline, with a growth rate of 15% compared to 5%, highlighted Cristian Mbala, Head of Product, 999.md. However, this pace indicates a tempering trend compared to the COVID-19 pandemic era, which saw a 50% annual increase in 2020, and it constituted 25% in 2021, 20% in 2022, and 15% in 2023.
Among the latest trends in online commerce are the launch of orders and payments from mobile phones, as well as the inclusion, at no extra cost, of additional products and services to enhance customer satisfaction, emphasized Stanislav Potemkin, Head of Merchant Sales and Acquiring Moldova and Belarus at Visa.