Online transactions amount to 1.5 percent of card payments

Online transactions amounted to approximately 1.5 percent of the total 84.4 million card payments made by Romanians at points of sale (POS) in the country and abroad last year, according to Antonio Eram, CEO and founder of Netopia Sistem. “Taking into account the approximately 12 million cards active in Romania and the current level of card use in internet transactions, it results that nine years have to pass so that every card is used at least once for online payment as well. In 2009, there was on average one single transaction per 10 cards,” said the company official. In terms of volume of transactions, online stores cashed under 3 percent of the value of total payments made by card, in excess of EUR 3.2 billion, last year. Eram believes there will be more than 1.5 million online payments by card this year, which would represent a growth of over 20 percent compared to 2009. Netopia is aiming to process approximately 30 percent of these transactions.

Otilia Haraga