Instead, competition has increased and the number of advertisers is increasing, the analysis shows.
2022 was an atypical year for the e-commerce market, with increases of 10%-15%, lower than in other years, with Romanian consumers making fewer impulse purchases.According to Limitless Agency representatives, among the reasons for the relatively small growth in e-commerce in 2022 is high inflation, which led consumers to be more frugal, and the increase in the number of advertisements and advertisers, which target the same audiences.
Thus, against the background of strong competition in e-commerce, the number of advertisements increased, which automatically led to an increase in CPC (cost per click) to 17.2% on average, even up to 30% in some areas, for generating the same number of orders as in 2021. In total, the budget of online stores for online advertising in 2022 was almost 20%-30% higher than in the previous year, but, through powerful tools, Limitless Agency takes care of cost optimization so that online stores obtain maximum sales through the investment made.
In 2022, November and December were among the best times of the year, marked by major sales events, namely, the Black Friday sales campaign and the Christmas holidays. Thus, in December, according to an analysis carried out on 3,340 online stores, the average order was RON402, lower than RON605 in November, on Black Friday, with total revenues of over EUR88 million recorded at over 1 million transactions.
If online sales were lower on the first days of December, Romanians started to buy more between December 5 and 9. Sales peaked on December 12, when 46,762 transactions and sales of almost EUR4 million were recorded. A second sales peak was recorded on December 19, with 44,191 transactions and sales of almost EUR3.6 million.
“Online shopping did not stop even during Christmas or before New Year’s Eve, the end of the year bringing millions of euros to online stores. Thus, some of the best sales of December were recorded – almost 1.2 million euros on December 24, almost 1.3 million euros on December 25, and almost 1.7 million euros the day after Christmas, respectively about 2 million euros on December 30 and 1.1 million euros on the last day of the year”, says Daniel Slăvenie, CEO & Partner of Limitless Agency.
According to the agency’s data, the fields seeing the highest sales in December were the IT&C – almost EUR43 million, fashion – EUR15.5 million, home and garden – EUR4.3 million, food – EUR1.34 million and beauty – over EUR820,000. The largest order was recorded in IT&C, of almost EUR14,500, for solar inverters, followed by an order worth over EUR12,000 for laptops and Apple phones.
The IT&C categories with the highest sales in December were smartphones (22%), video cards (10%), TV/audio video (7%), washing machines (5%), refrigerators (3%), laptops (2.2%) and consoles (2.2%). At the end of the year, an increased interest in VR/Gaming equipment was observed.
For 2023, Limitless Agency representatives estimate a growth in ecommerce of around 15%, pointing out there is room for a double growth in the field. According to them, marketing costs are set to go up amid increasing competition, recommending online stores to retain current customers, optimize costs and boost sales.