e – Trade: Social media and smartphone drive the purchase of EUR 100 billion in Southeast Europe

Its market for the wider Balkan and Southeast region is one of the most developing at both European and international level. In particular, in 2022 the value of e-commerce in Central and Eastern European countries approached EUR 94 billion, with an annual increase of 14% over the last five years, while in 2023 it exceeded EUR 100 billion. These research figures that see the light of day and much more will be presented during the Balkan eCommerce Summit organised on 4 and 5 April 2024 in Sofia, Bulgaria, with the participation of 14 countries, a large number of businesses and electronic platforms. The sole representative of the conference in Greece is Generation Y. As quoted by Nikola Ilchev, eCommerce Academy and Balkan eCommerce Summit Founder, at this year’s conference the markets for electronic commerce in Greece, Romania and Hungary will be at the heart of the issues to be discussed and analysed, due to their positive prospects. The founder of the conference, which is organised for the second time, points out that during the work, emphasis will be placed on networking of the companies involved both with representatives from international e-commerce platforms, such as Meta, Tik-Tok, Microsoft, BigCommerce, Geopost Francekka for the creation of synergies to expand online sales in a market that exceeds 80 million inhabitants and is growing rapidly. Social media changes e-commerce – main channel smart phone 89% of the traffic today in the electronic stores of Balkan countries comes from social media, according to detailed data (mediapost Hit Mail research) to be presented at the conference, Nikola Ilchev says. For this reason Digital Marketing will be at the heart of the conference’s information presentations to the participating companies, aiming to lead them to the adoption of methods for substantial sales growth. Other interesting elements are that 44% of consumers in Europe choose out-of-house delivery solutions, while ultimately only 68% of consumers in electronic markets give price priority to their purchasing decisions. Another essential issue, linked to the prospects for the development of e-commerce, is the choice of the best solution that suits any undertaking active in electronic commerce in the transport and delivery of products to the final consumer, with speed and safety. A matter which will also concern the conference. With regard to the investment needed to create an e-shop, as Nikola Ilchev says, it is increased compared to a few years ago mainly due to the increase in traffic that requires better infrastructure. But the existence of reliable electronic platforms that can give way to businesses for their online marketing requires smaller investments. The conference is attended, among other things, by Anastasios Spanidis, president of the GPA Business Group and founder of Generation Y, as well as Chrysa Faki, Head of Business Development of Generation Y, who will present the challenges that companies in the e-commerce sector are invited to face, proposing ways to turn these challenges into opportunities. For its part Evi Boukorou-Georguda, CEO of Generation Y invites Greek and Cypriot companies to participate in Balkan eCommerce Summit in order to be inspired by leaders in the e-commerce sector, keynote speakers and to explore ways in which they can expand their business in the Balkan markets. SOURCE: RES-BE