120m-euro market for electronic commerce next year

The online commerce market will amount to some 120 million euros in 2007, a 140 – 150% increase against this year, when the market is estimated at 40 – 50 million euros, stated Marius Ghenea, chairman of Fit Distribution, IT distributor, which sells IT products, electronics and mobile phones through Pcfun.ro. The value is, however, deemed quite low compared with the total retail market in Romania, which approaches 8 billion euros, said Ghenea. Online commerce currently accounts for less than 1% of the total retail market, and will account for 1.5% of the market in 2007, provided that Romanian retail maintains a steady pace, said the chairman of Fit Distribution. “Of the total online commerce market, this year at least, only a small share of online purchases – i.e. some 4 – 5 million euros will account for credit card transactions, while the remainder of transactions will be paid by other means,” said Marius Ghenea.