Food and Drink E-Commerce in Romania

2021 DEVELOPMENTS

Relatively high food spend and COVID-19 restrictions combine to support growth

Two factors combined to support the positive growth registered in food and drink e-commerce during 2021. The first factor to consider is that a high proportion of household spending in Romania is accounted for by food and beverages.

Last-mile delivery services experience rapid growth due to high public demand

One of the crucial factors that supported the rapid development of food and drink e-commerce in Romania during 2021 was the dramatic improvement seen in last-mile delivery services. This meant that grocery retailers were able to drastically reduce the minimum time that consumers had to wait between placing their online orders and receiving their deliveries.

The launch of Bolt points towards the future of food and drink e-commerce

2021 saw a major step in the development of food and drink e-commerce in Romania: the launch in the country of Bolt Market. This forms a key part of the Bolt platform, a new delivery food and non-food product delivery service which offers consumers direct access to the stock of retailers via orders placed on the Bolt Food app.

PROSPECTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Robust growth expected as food and drink e-commerce responds to emerging trends

The forecast period is expected to see food and drink e-commerce register impressive sales growth and this set to be a reflection of the increasingly hectic lifestyles of Romania’s busy urban professionals and the increasing demand for products and services that offer convenience and which can help consumers to reduce the amount of time they spend on grocery shopping. While the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to wane over the forecast period as the spread of the COVID-19 virus is brought under control, food and drink e-commerce is expected to continue generating strong sales growth, with the option to order products via an app to be delivered within a couple of hours likely to prove irresistible to significant numbers of busy urban dwellers.

Rising interest in locally cultivated fresh produce set to be targeted by specific apps

During the forecast period, the increasing interest of Romanian consumers in locally cultivated fresh produce, as well as domestically manufactured packaged food, is expected to become a major area of interest for various players in food and drink e-commerce. With many local farmers’ cooperatives and packaged food manufacturers interested in tapping into strong demand low products, it becomes increasingly likely that they will turn to the various apps that have emerged with the aim of connecting consumers directly with food producers to facilitate the placing of online orders for fresh meat, dairy and poultry, as well as fresh produce.

Grocery retailers face competition from food and drink brands offering products directly

One of the key trends expected to emerge in food and drink e-commerce during the forecast period is that significant numbers of food and beverage brands are expected to begin offering sales direct to consumers from their respective websites. Indeed, Romanian food producers are expected to continue developing their own e-commerce stores that sell their merchandise direct to consumers, rather than relying on third party marketplaces and/or app-based last-mile delivery services.