Share of Romanian online grocery sales in total market to surpass European average, says Carrefour

The Romanian subsidiary of French Carrefour officially launched today its online store – carrefour-online.ro – the retailer has announced.

Although online grocery sales are very low in Romania at present, the retailer predicts that over the next two to three years Romania will “burn phases” and their share in the total grocery sales will surpass the average of Western European markets, which at present is about 1.5 percent, said Vlad Ardeleanu, commercial director at Carrefour Romania.

Such an evolution could be fueled by Romania’s high Internet and social media penetration, high broadband speeds and a general interest in online sales, he added. Online grocery sales could have a similar evolution to the one online electronics sales have had over the past years, suggested Ardeleanu. He added that there is a general interest in online sales and that other large FMCG retailers could invest in similar platforms over the next period.

Carrefour’s local online store- carrefour-online.ro – has been available in beta version since April 15. This is the first online store launched by one of the large Romanian FMCG retailers.

The retailer didn’t offer information on the investment made in the site or its sales target. Carrefour’s suppliers don’t have to pay extra fees to be listed on the online store and the online portfolio is selected entirely by the retailer, Carrefour representatives added.

Since April, the online store has reported “thousands” of customers and the average order has been “considerably above” the minimum required order of RON 150 (approximately EUR 34), said Carrefour representatives. The best bought products have been bottled water, fruits, vegetables and detergents.

The transport fee is RON 15 (approximately EUR 3.4) for anywhere the retailer delivers and regardless of the quantities prurchased. Carrefour revelad that the heaviest order made so far was 300 kg. The orders are delivered by Fan Courier with whom Carrefour has an exclusive agreement.

Orders can be placed 24 hours, 7 days a week. Deliveries are made Monday to Friday between 14:00 and 22:00 and Saturday between 10:00 and 15:00. The service is available so far only in Bucharest and some neighboring areas.

The online stores features some 10,000 grocery products but their number is expected to reach 50,000 products by early 2014, which is the usual number of products which can be found in a regular Carrefour hypermarket.