Some 83% of Bulgarians are online users, of which 53% (over 2.8 million people) are shopping online, Bulgarian E-Commerce Association Board Chair Janet Naidenova said during a forum on responsible production and trade held on Thursday in Sofia. “In 2018-2019, online users were one-third of that figure. Then in 2020, the COVID pandemic gave a big boost to the digitalization of companies and e-commerce was the only channel for some goods and services,” she added.

Naidenova stressed that for e-commerce to exist, infrastructure must be in place. The event was organized by Manager magazine, reported Bulgarian News Agency (BTA).

Naydenova cited data showing on the location of sellers, according to which 94.4% of the online shoppers are buying goods from Bulgarian online stores located in Bulgaria. Some 32% from sellers are located in other EU Member States, 18% are located in non-EU countries, and in 1.5% of the deals the seller's country of origin is unknown.

As for the volume of e-commerce in Bulgaria in 2023, it was EUR 1.950 billion, with the market doubling in the last 5 years. Last year, 2.11% of Bulgaria’s GDP was attributable to online commerce in the country. The top online product and service categories - not just in Bulgaria but across the EU - were clothing, followed by accommodation, hotel bookings, sporting goods (excluding sportswear), cosmetics, restaurant supplies, etc.

According to the data, 60% of online payments in Bulgaria were made by cash on delivery and 31.32%- by credit/debit cards.

The most common choice of delivery was door-to-door - 53.3%. A total of 42.84% chose to pick their items from courier's office, while 2.86% picked their orders from a store, while 1% chose a delivery to courier’s locker. The average annual online basket was 680 euros per user. The return rate for orders purchased online in Bulgaria was 8.63%.

The survey covered about 4.6 million shipments last year.