E-commerce in Hungary

E-commerce

Internet access

With a population of almost 10 million, Hungary has an internet penetration rate at 80.2%. In 2016, 71% of individuals in Hungary accessed the internet daily or more frequently, while only 1% accessed the internet less than once a week. Mobile phones have become the most widely used devices among Hungarians for going online: in 2016 the share of monthly active mobile internet users was 50.4%. Dividing internet usage into age groups, 94% of the people between 16-24 connect daily; the share goes to 97% for 25-34-year-olds and 86% for 35-44. The older generations also log on regularly with 45-54-year-olds and over 55s showing a 82% and 71% daily penetration rate, respectively. According to GfK Digital Connected Customer, the top three activities online include the use of social media, email services and news sites. The most popular web search engines by market share in Hungary are Google (96.7%), Bing (1.3%) and Yahoo (1.2%).

E-commerce market

E-commerce in Hungary was worth EUR 1.65 billion in 2017. In a 10 years span, the domestic e-commerce revenue in Hungary grew from about EUR 140 million to 1.65 billion in 2017 (E-Commerce Hungary Conference by eNet). The online share in retail is also increasing, with 6.2% of total retail sales that were made online in 2017. Some of the most popular and biggest online stores in Hungary are Tesco, Media Markt, eMAG, Vatera.hu, Mall, Tesco, Libri-Bookline and Ujjé.hu. About 92% of Hungarian businesses sell their products or services on their own website or mobile application, according to data from Eurostat. The rate is well over the 85% average for the EU as a whole.

E-commerce sales and customers

In the Hungarian e-commerce market, the product categories ICT, consumer electronics, clothing and sportswear, toys and gifts as well as home appliances are the ones that generate the most sales. As of 2017, there were 5.85 million e-commerce users in Hungary, with an additional 1.04 million users expected to be shopping online by 2022 (Statista). Data from Eurostat shows that 26% of Hungarians (aged 16 to 74) made online purchases in the previous three months (the EU28 average being 48%). Online shoppers in Hungary do not limit their purchases to domestic web stores and foreign online stores continue to attract an increasing number of visitors from Hungary. Since 2015, the number of Hungarian consumers buying abroad has risen from 1.5 million to 2.7 million. Shipping costs are the main concern when choosing a delivery or pickup method. Half of all online buyers consider the delivery time as important when deciding on the delivery method, while easy access to the pickup point is considered the least important. About 73% of online orders in Hungary was delivered by a courier service, with cash on delivery as the preferred payment method (47%). Money transfer and bank transfer were less used.

Social media

About 83% of Hungarian internet users between the ages of 16 and 74 use social networks, a rate among the highest in the European Union. As far as the age group between 16 and 24 years is concerned, the rate of social network usage was 97%, and a still high 55% for older users aged between 65 and 74 (data from Eurostat). Social media apps are used by the largest number of people, and they are also used the most frequently: three-quarter of the 4.7 million smartphone users use them at least daily, 8% of them hourly, 54% more than once a day and 13% once a day (eNet). In Hungary, Facebook is the most widely used social network, with 5.3 million users recorded in March 2016, according to a survey by MediaQ. It is followed by YouTube (3.2 million users), Google+ (1.7 million users), Instagram (942,000 users), Pinterest (837,000 users), LinkedIn (711,000 users) and Twitter (631,000 users). Facebook also leads the field of online messaging apps: 80% of Hungarian smartphone users use Messenger, of which 62% do it at least daily. Other popular messaging platforms are Viber (62%), Skype (39%) and WhatsApp (20%).