site.btaOnline Trade in Bulgaria is Moving from Overabundance to Transformation, According to Poll

Online trade in Bulgaria is moving from overabundance to transformation, according to the second national representative poll on the e-commerce market, which was conducted by the Enterprise magazine (enterprise.bg) and the Market Links polling agency and presented on Wednesday in Sofia.

“The poll aims to examine trends in market transformation, which will help businesses operating online. It aims to go beyond the statistics and show the real consumer, what his thinking and desire is,” Galya Gogova from Market Links explained.

1,035 consumers who shopped online in the last six months of 2024 participated in The Pulse of eCommerce in Bulgaria 2025 survey.

"According to the data, currently about 88% of the Bulgarian population uses the internet on an almost daily or even hourly basis, some every minute, which makes about 4,800,000 online users. 64% of them shopped online in the past half of 2024, which is around 3,100,000 online shoppers," Gogova explained.

The poll found that 21% of respondents made a spontaneous decision to purchase online without having a plan to purchase the product or service. For 38% the purchase they made was planned, but the decision was spontaneous. For 41% the purchase and the decision itself were planned. The survey also shows that visual content is a main driver for online purchases - photos, videos, customer’s opinions. 65% said they saw a commercial, 36% an online advertisement, 11% received a personalized email from the merchant.

In the preliminary research stage, before the purchase, 69% of respondents said that they compared prices, 47% compared different brands, 34% researched prices in different stores, 34% read reviews, 18% asked friends. The main factors for choosing to make a purchase are the price of the product or service (57%), trust in the specific store (18%), special offers (6%), previous experience with a given store (5%), the cost of delivery (4%). “When merchants are transparent, provide an opportunity for easy comparison, they gain customers’ trust,” Galya Gogova noted.

Most often, the order is placed via a mobile phone (52%), 41% use a computer or laptop, and 4% a tablet, the poll shows. The data shows that there is parity in payment for the purchase: 55% paid upon receipt of the ordered product, the rest paid on the merchant's website at the time of purchase. The poll found that in 2024, the preferred method of delivery changed in comparison to the previous year. Last year, the parcel’s delivery to a box method increased by 17%, due to the convenience of not having to take into account working hours, compared to 5% in 2023.