E-commerce in Bulgaria

E-commerce

Internet access

By the end of 2017, Bulgaria had a population of 7 million people, out of which 4.6 million were internet users, making the penetration rate 66.3%. Out of those users, 97% of 16-24 year olds, 92% of 25-34 year olds and 88% of 35-44 year olds went online daily. The older generation also uses the Internet regularly, with 45-54 year olds and people aged over 55 showing a 79% and 74% daily penetration rate, respectively.  Internet speeds and connection reliability in the capital are ranked among the fastest in the world. The government has developed a plan to further connect the country, and its main goal is to improve and expand Bulgaria's broadband infrastructure in remote and sparsely populated areas, as they represent a deficit in the use of internet and all related services. Even though there is a gap between urban and rural connectivity rates, a key factor is that the income of most households living in rural areas is lower than the average for the country. Therefore, the lack of connectivity in Bulgaria households is not due to infrastructural issues, but rather financial reasons. According to the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria, only 0.2% of the households that don't have internet access at home declare that they aren't connected because broadband is not available in their area, while 9% of unconnected households state that it's due to the high cost. As of September 2018, the most popular browsers in the country by market share were Chrome (69.16%), Firefox (12.52%), Safari (6.98%), IE (3.25%), Opera (2.41%) and Samsung Internet (2.17%). As for search engines, the most popular one by far was Google (98.44%), followed by Bing (0.7%) and Yahoo! (0.58%).

E-commerce market

Bulgaria ranks second in southern Europe in terms of e-commerce and is one of fastest growing e-commerce markets in Europe. According to Statista, Bulgaria's e-commerce revenue was estimated at US$ 525 million for 2017, which accounts for 1.05% of the GDP, and indicates a growth of 118% compared to 2016. In 2017, there were 3.6 million e-commerce users in Bulgaria, a number that is expected to grow to 3.8 million by 2022. The average revenue per user in the e-commerce market amounts to US$ 157.49 in 2018 and is expected to reach US$ 210.29 by 2022. Fashion is the biggest e-commerce segment in Bulgaria, with a revenue of US$ 229.3 million in 2017, followed by electronics and media (US$ 169.8 in revenue), food and personal care, furniture and appliances, and toys and hobbies. As for payment methods, 80% of Bulgarian online shoppers prefer to pay via mobile, 16% pay by credit card, 2% by eWallet, and 1% by bank transfer. The major challenges with e-commerce in Bulgaria are technical malfunctioning of websites during ordering or payment, speed of delivery longer than indicated, difficulties in finding information concerning guarantees, and wrong or damaged goods delivered. According to the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria, the main reasons why people don't shop online is because they prefer to shop in person, to see products, are loyal to shops, or just due to force of habit. Cross-border shopping is becoming more popular, and according to the 2017 European E-commerce Report, 10% of e-shoppers in Bulgaria make purchases from foreign websites. Some of the most popular e-commerce websites in Bulgaria are olx.bg, bazar.bg and pazaruvaj.com.