Most often people buy clothing, shoes and accessories, sports items and electrical goods

Every year the e-commerce in Bulgaria grows by up to 20-30% according to official data from the end of 2018.

Compared with 2017, the growth in 2018 reaches 30%. In 2017, the e-commerce volumes were 511mn Euro, registering a growth of 22% compared with 2016. 

The data were presented by UniCredit Consumer Financing at a special event for the commercial partners of the company.

According to the presented data, around 1.2mn Bulgarians made purchases online in 2018, most often buying clothing, shoes and accessories, sports items and electrical goods. Also, there has been a trend for the past years of more expensive goods being purchased online.

“In the next few years we expect a significant growth in the lease purchasing of goods and services online.  One of the reasons is that in our country more than 70% of the population has access to the Internet. Another factor is the growing saturation in the smart phone market as 74% of the population in Bulgaria have a mobile phone according to data for 2018. Last but not least, 30% of the online consumers, forming 17% of the total population of Bulgaria have made at least one purchase online“, commented Georgi Tushev, Manager of Commercial Intermediaries Unit in UniCredit Consumer Financing.

According to UniCredit Consumer Financing, the e-commerce sector in Bulgaria will continue to grow at a sustainable rate, expecting a growth of 27% in the following years.

Globally the growth of traditional commerce is by around 3-4%, questioning whether it would disappear altogether from certain sectors. Forecasts in this regard indicate that the traditional stores will not disappear, but gradually they will all enter the e-commerce sector.

The most fast-developing product categories will be food catering, home and garden and the online services with the highest growth will be holiday packages, online insurance and ticket sales.

Since last year, in UniCredit Consumer Financing an entirely digital process for POS loan application is in use. A year later since then, data indicate that the most popular goods in 2018 purchased online with a leasing are computers and office equipment, followed by smart phones and TV sets.

More often than not, POS loans are taken out by married men aged 30 to 39 years, with secondary educational qualification and permanently employed since 1 to 3 years. The income of this type of customer is up to BGN 1,000 and the average purchase amount is BGN 680.

“Bulgaria has a potential for e-commerce development as the peak rates of the European market have not been reached, yet. Supporting this trend is the fact that 30% of the online consumers will be mainly from the generation of people born after 1995, i.e. the so-called „Generation Z“, added Ekaterina Kirilova, Member of the Management Board and CCO of UniCredit Consumer Financing.

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Additional media information:

Victoria Blajeva, tel +359 (0) 2 9264 993, wjlj/ebwjepwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Beatris Nikolova, tel +359 (0) 2 9232 528, cfbusjt/ojlpmpwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Ekaterina Ancheva, tel +359 894 518 193 , flbufsjob/bodifwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch