E-commerce Ukraine: results of 2018 and prediction to 2019

Marketplaces compete with search engines, e-commerce grew by 30%, and almost all buys online.

Denis Gorovoi, EVO Development Director? said about situation with Ukrainian e-commerce.

The e-commerce market in 2018 grew by a third. This year we changed the calculation method: we evaluated not only the goods and services circulation, but also the related services cost: advertising, promotion, online-payment and delivery. The physical goods and services turnover, purchased online in 2018, reaches UAH 65 billion. The revenue from its advertising in social chains, on marketplaces and market players’ online-resources is UAH 95 billion. Operators earned on the delivery of goods, purchased online, UAH 2.6 billion, on online-payments — UAH 0.8 billion. We expect that in 2019 e-commerce will increase by at least a quarter.

Marketplaces compete with chains and search engines. Most retailers earn on sales, and marketplaces — on the goods and services promotion. This makes it look like with social chains and search engines. Moreover: marketplaces have become a serious competitor to search engines. 55% of shoppers search immediately for goods in the US on Amazon, Etsy or E-bay, bypassing Google. The direct traffic share is in Ukraine on Prom 19%, Rozetka is 30%, OLX is 44%, Aliexpress is 50%, and since the 2017 beginning it has grown by an average of 5 percentage points.

Powerful players are no longer divided into offline- and online- merchants, but create ecosystems around buyers. The client does not want to choose between shopping on the Internet and physical stores. He is both important advantages offline and online. In particular, everywhere the goods must be available, payment — convenient and safe, receipt and return — fast, and service — quality. We also need reviews that will help to choose a product or check the seller integrity. It is actually technological solutions simplifying the choice: augmented reality, a suit for measuring body parameters and ets.

The border between offline and online is erased: Amazon launches physical stores without cash registers, Alibaba opens a store with interactive mirrors, Rozetka — offline-stores, Auchan — marketplace. EVO and Rozetka have teamed up to improve customer experience and grow the market.

The credibility to online-shopping is growing. For the year, Ukrainians purchased goods on the EVO marketplaces (Prom.ua, Bigl.ua, Crafta.ua, Shafa.ua), for UAH 9.5 billion and for UAH 10.5 billion — on the companies’ websites on Prom.ua.

In total, in 2018 it was spent on marketplaces for 54% more than last year. At the same time, the number of orders increased by 47%.

The average check increased by 5% and amounts to 763 UAH.

Every fifth product bought in a certified company at Prom.ua. This means that shopping security and quality service are gradually becoming more important than the lowest price.

The demand for everyday goods and children’s products is growing. Most often in 2018, customers bought clothes, shoes, accessories, appliances, electronics, consumer goods, home and garden products, cosmetics and perfumes.

The following categories are growing the most actively: goods for children, auto- and motor-cycle, as well as appliances and electronics. We are expecting that in 2019 the demand for online-shopping for food will also increase.

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Special Project: Ukrainian e-commerce in figures, facts and pictures