SMEs in focus: How to grow your business through e-commerce

Florin Jianu, president of CNIPMMR, opened the event by stressing that digitalization is a key factor in the development of e-commerce among entrepreneurs, and SMEs need support in this endeavor.

"Although SMEs have limited resources and human capacity, nine out of ten consider the digitalization process to be very important for the development of the company. At the same time, more than half of SME employees see digitisation as an opportunity rather than a threat. Digitisation of state institutions, tax deductions for digitisation expenses and funding of further training courses for employees in digitisation are among the main needs of entrepreneurs in the field of digitisation," said Jianu. "From our analysis, digitisation is also a cost, whether we are talking about a compliance cost or a human resource cost, and then we need to identify financial resources to support SMEs in the digital transformation process."

Cristian Pelivan, executive director of the Romanian Association of Online Shops (ARMO), took an x-ray of the e-commerce sector last year, noting that more than 68% of Internet users placed at least one order online, buying almost anything and especially everyday items, a category with growing sales on online platforms.

"Romania has made great progress in terms of online commerce penetration, and this is due to the services and infrastructure that companies and courier firms have created in recent years. For example, it is already standard here to receive your order within a day or two, whereas in Europe it can take up to seven days to deliver it to the courier. However, only 12% of Romanian SMEs were selling online in 2021, when these data were published, compared to the EU average of 18%, and the average turnover from online commerce was 7% compared to the EU average of 12%. At the same time, only 4% of Romanian companies were making cross-border sales online. The great economic advantage of online commerce is that it opens up your business to millions or tens of millions of potential buyers not only in Romania but also abroad," Pelivan said.

Oana Antohe, senior director of eMAG Marketplace, pointed out that the market that eMAG addresses through its Marketplace is a growing one, which means that it is a very good time to start an online business and make, as an SME selling products in Romania, the transition to online and to the South-East Europe region, one with a high growth potential in the next five years. An SME in Romania moving online now would grow much more than if that entrepreneur started in a more mature market in the Central and Eastern European region, such as Poland.

"Selling through a Marketplace model helps businesses grow a lot, and we have a package of five programmes that can support accelerated online business growth: Genius is the program that brings customers free delivery and exclusive offers, and sellers who bring their products into the program double their conversion rate; eMAG Ads is the pay-per-click service, through which sellers increase the number of visits to their product page and can bring them more than 40% more visibility. Our Fulfilment solution also allows sellers to bring products into eMAG's warehouse, helping them to scale their business and keep their costs down, leaving them more time for commercial strategy. The cross-border programme gives sellers 37% additional sales and the opportunity to exit to the Bulgarian and Hungarian markets. In addition to all these programmes, eMAG develops campaigns that can generate three to four times more sales for entrepreneurs who participate in them, month after month. We encourage any retailer who wants to grow to test these services that we offer in all three countries where we operate," Antohe concluded.