Catalogue purchases, one click away

Clothing catalogues are fighting over market share in Romania, and more recently their owners have found an ally in the online sector, with catalogue sales gradually becoming e-mail sales.
“The fast pace that the increasingly tight deadlines at work and the lack of spare time spent with the family are just two of the main reasons behind people’s decision to resort to buying online,” says Ioana Cofaru, marketing manager of La Redoute, a company specialising in catalogue sales.

The three mail order companies present on the Romanian market, which put together product catalogues and send them by post are Quelle (with a 13.9 million-euro turnover in 2009 and a 260,000-euro profit), La Redoute (with 690,000 euros in turnover in 2009) and 3Suisses, which was launched in Romania in February 2010, writes BUSINESS Magazin weekly (www.businessmagazin.ro).

The mail order market fell by around 13.5% in RON last year and by 25% in euros, to nearly 15 million euros (62.57 million RON), despite the fact that there was a new player on the market. Companies are optimistic as far as this year is concerned, expecting a rise in volumes sold.