The e-commerce has entered a new stage in Romania, more customers making purchases on their smartphones and tablets, according to the biggest local online retailer.

In 2015, Romania’s largest online retailer eMAG registered 69.2 million visits from mobile devices, double compared to the previous year (34.8 million), and the number is expected to continue its growing trend this year. The retailer forecasts that it will register about 120 million visits from smartphones and tablets in 2016. The peak will be recorded in November and December when eMAG expects 60% of the visits to come from mobile devices.

In November and December 2015, the mobile visits on the eMAG website exceeded for the first time the threshold of 50% of the total visits.

Meanwhile, the desktop traffic remained relatively constant last year at around 96 million visits. The mobile devices were thus the main driver for eMAG’s increase. In 2015, the retailer's local website (emag.ro) registered 27% more visits than in the previous year, and the growth could accelerate to 31% in 2016.

"2015 was the first year when the mobile visits have surpassed those from laptop and desktop, and we have every reason to expect an increase this year. This will be seen in phone and tablet orders as well, where we anticipate an increase of at least 30%," said Bogdan Axinia, VP Platforms & Technology at eMAG.

In terms of age, more than 80% of those who use mobile devices to make orders are aged between 18 and 44. The highest volume of orders from smartphones and tablets (38.4%) was registered between 19:00 and 01:00, according to eMAG.

Mobile users usually buy children’s products (14.99% of the purchased products), small appliances (8.51%), and mobile phones (8.04%).

Around 78% of the visits registered on the website came from smartphones with Android operating systems, those using iOS ranking second with a share of 19.6%. When it comes to tablets, the iPads rank first with a share of 63.4%.

Last year, mobile devices also accounted for 30% of eMAG Bulgaria’s traffic, up 150% year-on-year. In Hungary, the traffic on smartphones and tablets has increased three times over the previous year, reaching 30% of the total visits to the website.

eMAG was founded in 2001 by Romanian entrepreneurs. The retailer, which is now controlled by South African group Naspers, has expanded abroad since then, currently being present in Bulgaria, Poland, and Hungary as well.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: eMAG on Facebook)