A historic turn in online commerce: more money is now going to foreign webshops than to domestic ones

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 09. 22. 11:21

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According to a fresh analysis by Biztosdöntés.hu, the Hungarian e-commerce sector reached a milestone in the second quarter of 2025: between April and June, Hungarian consumers spent a total of HUF 1,111 billion in foreign webshops – nearly HUF 100 million more than in domestic ones. This marks the first time that foreign spending has surpassed domestic levels.

According to data from the Hungarian National Bank, Hungarian bank cards were used over 49 million times in foreign online stores during the quarter, representing a 29.2 percent year-on-year increase. By contrast, domestic webshops recorded 54.2 million purchases, a 4.7 percent growth.

The shift is primarily driven by the rapid rise of the Chinese platform Temu: while Hungarians previously placed most of their online orders from domestic stores, today 52 out of every 100 forints spent online go abroad.

However, Biztosdöntés.hu expert Péter Gergely pointed out that interpreting the data is somewhat complicated, since certain transactions – such as bank card top-ups to Revolut accounts – are still recorded by Hungarian banks as online purchases. In addition, payments made to several retailers operating in Hungary but registered abroad are also classified as foreign spending in the statistics.

While domestic webshops still lead in the number of purchases, Hungarian consumers spend on average one-fifth more per transaction at foreign online stores.