BUDAPEST: Hungary’s online retail trade generated HUF 427 billion in turnover in 2016, more than 5% of the total national retail trade volume, signalling a dynamic expansion of the online sector, reveals a recent report by eNET Internet Research based on responses from web stores. The research results were announced at the 14th Hungarian E-commerce Conference in Visegrád.
The online retail (e-tail) sector grew last year and is foreseen to continue growing its share of the total domestic retail trade. The most popular product categories were IT and entertainment electronics, clothes, toys/gifts, and household machinery/white goods, according to the eNET research.
Additionally to the size of the market, cart values also grew, according to eNET data. Online shoppers spent an average HUF 13,000 in online purchases last year, HUF 1,700 more than in 2015.
Buyers still prefer their goods to be delivered by courier services, followed by personal collection at staffed stores operated by partners and the seller’s site, as most of the total purchase value (88%) was still delivered by couriers or own employees, or was collected by customers in physical shops.
As a continuation of trends observed a year earlier, Hungarian web shops primarily offered cash payment on delivery, bank transfer or cash payment on site as payment options in 2016, eNET data reveal. Although a 25 basis-point expansion was seen in bank card payment on delivery, cash payment on delivery remains the most popular option in terms of both the number and value of orders.
According to eNET, the recent e-tail boom indicates that Hungarians have grown accustomed to this buying method. The number of online shoppers purchasing goods from domestic online shops grew by 600,000 in 2016 from just above four million in 2015. The number of shoppers ordering goods from foreign online stores also grew from 1.5 million in 2015 to 2.2 million in 2016.
