Last updated: April 2026
Romania's eCommerce market passed EUR 8 billion in 2025 (online retail, physical goods), based on aggregated figures from MerchantPro, Gomag and Romania Insider. Add digital services, travel and utilities and the total goes above EUR 11.7 billion (ARMO / European E-commerce Report 2024). Romania is one of the fastest-moving eCommerce markets in Central and Eastern Europe, growing 8-10% a year through 2023-2024, with internet penetration at 94% (DataReportal 2025). If you want to know where the market stands, where it is heading and what is still open for your business, this is the full picture.
The market in numbers
Before talking about opportunities, here is the context, with sources.
| Indicator | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Online retail market value (2025) | over EUR 8 billion | Romanian eCommerce market reports 2025-2026 |
| Total market including services (2024) | EUR 11.7 billion | ARMO, The Paypers, traficmedia.ro |
| Annual growth 2023 | +10% | ARMO, GPeC, ZF |
| Annual growth 2024 | +8-10% | ARMO, Compass, Romania Insider |
| Internet penetration in Romania | 94% | DataReportal 2025 |
| Internet users who buy online | nearly 3 in 4 (72.9% in 2024) | National Institute of Statistics, BusinessDays 2024 |
| Mobile traffic in online stores | 80-82% of the total | Mordor Intelligence, Tuya Digital, Twinr 2025 |
This is a mature market that still grows at a serious pace. For comparison, Romania's economy as a whole grew 2-4% a year over the same period, so eCommerce is expanding two to four times faster than everything else.
The mobile shift: 80% of traffic comes from phones
This is probably the structural change with the biggest day-to-day impact. According to Mordor Intelligence (2025), Tuya Digital (2024) and Twinr (2025), between 80% and 82% of traffic to Romanian online stores comes from mobile devices. On top of that, 74% of transactions are completed on a smartphone.
What that means in practice for any store in 2026:
- Mobile-first design is not optional - not a desktop layout squeezed into a phone, but a design drawn for the phone first
- A short checkout on mobile - three steps at most, no pointless fields, Apple Pay and Google Pay available
- Loading speed on mobile connections - pages that take more than three seconds lose visitors before the first tap
- Optimised images - WebP, lazy loading, sizes that match the screen
A custom store built by Pronet Design is mobile-first from the first line of code, not adapted afterwards.
Parcel lockers and out-of-home delivery are the new default
One of the most visible changes of the past three years is how fast the locker network has grown. According to Sameday and Fan Courier:
- Sameday: over 7,700 easybox units live in Romania in 2025
- Fan Courier: 2,700 FANbox units running, with another 400 being installed (2026)
- Together: more than 10,000 active pick-up points across the country
The result: 65% of shoppers prefer locker delivery, according to Sameday data from Black Friday 2024. A store that does not offer it is out of step with roughly two thirds of its customers.
Locker integration (easybox and FANbox) is standard in every online store we build, not a paid extra.
Online payments: cards are gaining ground fast
Romania was a cash-on-delivery market for a long time. The 2025-2026 data shows that changing quickly:
- Cards account for somewhere between 28.8% and 45.62% of transactions, depending on the study and the segment
- Cash on delivery is falling, now at 31.5-40%
- Buy Now, Pay Later: 8.2% of transactions (Balkan eCommerce Summit 2026) and climbing
- Digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Revolut Pay): rising quickly on the back of smartphone use
BNPL deserves a closer look. Letting people pay in interest-free instalments lifts average order value noticeably, because customers reach for the more expensive product without feeling the hit that month.
What Romanians actually buy online
Based on National Institute of Statistics / GPeC 2023 data and Mordor Intelligence 2025, the ranking looks like this:
- Clothing and footwear - 31.48% revenue share (Mordor Intelligence); 79.6% of online shoppers bought from this category
- Cosmetics and beauty - bought by 64% of online shoppers
- Restaurant and fast food orders - 32.7% of shoppers (National Institute of Statistics / Eurostat 2023)
- Pharmacy and health - growing fast, now ordered more often than electronics
- Electronics and home appliances - high average order value
- Food and beverages - the fastest growing segment in 2024-2025
The legal framework in 2025-2026
The rules changed a lot in the past two years and they hit online stores directly. This is the part we most often see merchants ignore.
| Rule | What it means for you | In force |
|---|---|---|
| e-Factura B2B | Every invoice issued to another company must go through the ANAF system (Romania's tax authority) | Since 2024 |
| e-Factura B2C | Invoices issued to individual consumers must reach ANAF within 5 working days | Since 2025 (Emergency Ordinance 89/2025) |
| e-Transport GPS | Shipments over 2.5t, over 500kg or worth more than RON 10,000 need GPS monitoring | Since January 2026 |
| VAT One Stop Shop | Sell into other EU countries and pass EUR 10,000 in total and you charge the buyer's country VAT rate | Since July 2021, still in force |
| Import exemption removed | Parcels from outside the EU under EUR 150 are no longer VAT exempt | From 2026 |
| Right of return | 14 calendar days, and it has to be stated clearly in the store | Emergency Ordinance 34/2014, confirmed |
e-Factura integration (SmartBill, Oblio) with automatic submission to ANAF is standard in every store Pronet Design delivers. We do not leave merchants to handle tax filing by hand.
Where the room to grow is in 2026
With 94% internet penetration and nearly three in four users buying online, Romania is no longer an emerging eCommerce market. There are still segments with plenty of space left, though:
- Rural areas - online shoppers outside cities rose to 67.3% (ARMO 2024), which opens up local produce, food and building materials
- B2B online - company-to-company ordering is far behind B2C; platforms with per-client pricing have a clear niche
- Food and beverages - the fastest growing segment; local, organic and specialty shops have an active audience
- Pharmacy and supplements - fast growth, healthy margins, customers with above-average income
- Exporting across the EU through the One Stop Shop - with a multi-language, multi-currency store (PrestaShop, Magento) Romania works well as a base for selling into Bulgaria, Hungary and Serbia
Pronet Design has delivered stores in every one of these segments.
Why the platform matters right now
The figures above describe a competitive market, and the gap between a profitable store and one that barely holds on often comes down to the technical side. A store that goes down on Black Friday loses sales it will never recover. A checkout that breaks on mobile loses 80% of visitors. A missing e-Factura integration turns into fines.
Pronet Design - an eCommerce agency in Sibiu with 160+ projects and 6 GPeC trophies (GPeC is Romania's main eCommerce competition) - builds stores that meet these standards from launch: mobile-first, tax integrations included, room to handle peak traffic. Clients get the full source code, so there is no lock-in to us or to any subscription platform.
If you are still weighing up which platform to build on, read our guide to open source eCommerce platforms.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Romanian eCommerce market still growing or has it levelled off?
It keeps growing, but more slowly than during the pandemic years. Estimates for 2025 point to 5-6%, against 10% in 2023. The growth no longer comes from new shoppers arriving, it comes from bigger baskets and more frequent orders.
How many online stores are there in Romania?
Estimates range between 25,000 and 40,000 active stores, depending on how you count. The market is fragmented: a handful of large players take most of the volume, while thousands of small and mid-sized shops compete in specific niches.
Does a small online store really have to use e-Factura?
Yes. Since 2025, e-Factura B2C applies to any business issuing invoices to individuals, whatever its size. Invoices have to reach the ANAF system within five working days (Emergency Ordinance 89/2025).
Which platform do you recommend for a new store in Romania?
It depends on catalogue size and growth plans. OpenCart suits catalogues of 1,000 to 10,000 products, PrestaShop works well for stores selling across borders, and Magento handles enterprise volume. We work with all three and recommend one after looking at what the business actually needs.
