Online retail sales exceeded 200 billion forints in the first six months

Like-for-like online retail sales jumped 16.4 percent in the first half of 2019 and represented a value of HUF 207.5 billion. Interestingly, despite this record sum the sector is expanding slower than before. The average basket value keeps growing though, after last year’s HUF 11,000 it has been HUF 11,333 in 2019. GKI Digital and Árukereső.hu’s joint online retail index was down a little from the level of the previous quarter. According to the latest survey of the two companies, the number one marketing (for advertisers) and information gathering (for shoppers) platform is now the internet.

Shoppers tend to decide not where to do their shopping, but what to buy, and then they are looking for the best retailer to do this. This means that the experiences and opinions of fellow shoppers are more and more important. In March 2019 GKI Digital conducted a survey with 3,800 participants, which revealed that 84 percent of Hungary’s 6 million active internet users have an account at the biggest social media website. This means there is great potential in advertising there. 95 percent of Hungarian online shops also have a page at one of the social media websites. //