Romania’s e-commerce market continued to expand in 2025. Nearly three-quarters (74.3%) of internet users aged 16 to 74 purchased goods or services online over the past year, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), up 1.4 percentage points compared with the previous year.
Growth was recorded across both genders. The share of male internet users shopping online increased by 0.9 percentage points to 72.8%, while the proportion among women rose by 1.9 percentage points to 75.8%, maintaining a three-point lead over men.
Online shopping becomes habitual
For a majority of users, online shopping has become a regular activity. Almost 59% of internet users made online purchases in the last three months, while 26.6% bought goods or services between three months and one year ago. Only 14.5% reported that their most recent online purchase took place more than a year earlier.
In 2024, approximately 5.88 million people aged 16 to 74 purchased goods or services online in the last three months, an increase of nearly 800,000 compared with the previous year. Of these, 3.4 million made purchases via a website or mobile application for personal use.
Urban areas still lead, rural regions catch up
Despite sustained growth across the country, notable disparities remain between urban and rural areas. In 2025, 77.6% of internet users living in urban areas made online purchases, compared with 70.6% in rural areas.
While the urban share increased modestly by 0.5 percentage points year-on-year, rural areas recorded a sharper rise of 3.3 percentage points, suggesting accelerating adoption outside major cities.
Young consumers dominate, older generations follow
By age group, online shopping is nearly ubiquitous among younger Romanians. Some 86.4% of people aged 16 to 34 reported making online purchases, followed by 81% of those aged 35 to 54.
Notably, adoption is also rising among older consumers. More than half of individuals aged 55 to 74 (55.1%) used the internet to purchase goods or services, indicating a gradual expansion of digital commerce into traditionally less connected demographics.
Students, pupils and employees show the highest levels of engagement with e-commerce, with shares exceeding 84%. At the other end of the spectrum, only 46.7% of pensioners reported purchasing goods or services online in 2025.
Bucharest-Ilfov leads regional rankings
Regional disparities are also evident. The share of online shoppers ranges from a low of 68.6% in the South-East region to a high of 83.6% in the Bucharest-Ilfov region, which continues to benefit from higher incomes, better infrastructure and broader access to digital services.
Transport and entertainment dominate online spending
About 65.4% of online shoppers bought transport-related services, such as airline tickets, train or bus tickets, or taxi rides, in the last three months. This is followed by tickets for cultural and sporting events (52.2%) and accommodation services, including hotel bookings and travel agency reservations (41.6%).
