site.btaSome 53% of Bulgarian Internet Users Shop Online, Survey Shows

Some 83% of Bulgarians are online users, of which 53% (over 2.8 million people) are shopping online, Bulgarian E-Commerce Association Board Chair Janet Naidenova said during a forum on responsible production and trade held on Thursday in Sofia. “In 2018-2019, online users were one-third of that figure. Then in 2020, the COVID pandemic gave a big boost to the digitalization of companies and e-commerce was the only channel for some goods and services,” she added.

Naidenova stressed that for e-commerce to exist, infrastructure must be in place. The event was organized by Manager magazine.

Naydenova cited data showing on the location of sellers, according to which 94.4% of the online shoppers are buying goods from Bulgarian online stores located in Bulgaria. Some 32% from sellers are located in other EU Member States, 18% are located in non-EU countries, and in 1.5% of the deals the seller's country of origin is unknown.

As for the volume of e-commerce in Bulgaria in 2023, it was EUR 1.950 billion, with the market doubling in the last 5 years. Last year, 2.11% of Bulgaria’s GDP was attributable to online commerce in the country. The top online product and service categories - not just in Bulgaria but across the EU - were clothing, followed by accommodation, hotel bookings, sporting goods (excluding sportswear), cosmetics, restaurant supplies, etc.

According to the data, 60% of online payments in Bulgaria were made by cash on delivery and 31.32%- by credit/debit cards.

The most common choice of delivery was door-to-door - 53.3%. A total of 42.84% chose to pick their items from courier's office, while 2.86% picked their orders from a store, while 1% chose a delivery to courier’s locker. The average annual online basket was 680 euros per user. The return rate for orders purchased online in Bulgaria was 8.63%.

The survey covered about 4.6 million shipments last year.