Reviewing the Performance of Organic E-shops in Romania

Date:

Author:

The Bucharest University of Economic StudiesRomania

Reviewing the Performance of Organic E-shops in Romania

November 5-6th 2015THE 9th INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE Bucharest, Romania

PhD(c) Adina-Roxana [email protected]

20130413_MESMAP_v5.ppt

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Investigating the characteristics of e-shops selling organic products in Romania

Visual abstract

► Upward trend on the organic market worldwide

► 10 mil internet users in Romania in 2014

► Increasing online shopping for all types of products

Analysing data of 50 e-shops in Romania…

… to identify the strategies that the e-shops managers can adopt to improve their performance

► Benchmarking analysis of 50 e-shops selling organic products in Romania

► Survey among internet users on online shopping for organic products

Context

Methodology

Analysis and discussion

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Research process design

Methodology

Literature review Data collection Benchmarking

analysis Survey

► Identification of strategies in e-commerce, methodologies used in previous studies

Details in next slides

► Collection of data regarding e-commerce in Romania

► Identification of the e-shops in Romania, choosing the sample

► Development of a best practice benchmarking analysis to identify robust strategies that could be adopted by e-shops managers

► Designing an online survey for consumers of organic products that purchase them online

The objective: identify the strategies for improving performance of e-shops

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From the analysis of the 50 e-shops…

The result of the benchmarking analysis

Assortment of products

Ordering and

return policy

Payment and delivery

User friendliness

►Minimum value of the order: 3-70 € (20/50)

►33/50 shops require confirmation of the order

►45/50 clearly state the return policy

►16/50 refer to the previous law regarding the right of the consumer to return a product

►Return of money in max 30 days

Online marketing strategy

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Ordering and

return policy


User friendliness

► In the sample, the most popular payment method is cash at delivery

► Irrespective of the product purchase, 90% of the online shopping in Romania, consumers pay at delivery (Radu, 2015)

► Most common delivery method is by fast currier

► 21/50 shops use the services of the Romanian post, while 7 mention they do not deliver this way

► For an average value of the order >50€ , the transport cost is 0 lei

► Delivery is 24 h -5 days


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Ordering and

return policy


User friendliness

►75% of the shops offer a mix of organic and non-organic products

►The size of product portfolio ranges from 72 products to over 4500

►47/50 shops have food products

►41/50 sell cosmetics►37/50 offer dietary

supplement►27/50 sell detergents


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Ordering and

return policy


User friendliness


►Easy to browse►Available search

options►Product filter►Amount of information

on the products►Site map►Complete contact►Terms and conditions

to the site►Confidentiality►FAQ section►Customers reviews

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The profile of the shops according to the user friendliness criteria


► As visible in the graph, most sites fail to provide complete contact information

► Very few sites have consistent and reliable customer reviews / feedback

► A good FAQ section is quite rare in the sample

The shops sample profile according to the available user friendliness criteria

Source: own representation

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Ordering and

return policy


User friendliness


►Use of social media (Facebook, Google +, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest)

►Facebook data for 45 of the sites – ranging from 1 to > 67000 likes

►18/50 use business directories

►34/50 e-shops had the promotional sales, price cuts, special deals, discounts

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The benchmarking criteria was used to create a score and to rank shops

Result of the benchmarking criteria

The distribution of the scores ranges for the 50 shops in the non-financial criteriaSource: own calculations

► The companies in the sample are registered between 1993 – 2015, 22 with more that 3 years since incorporation

► Analysing the financial indicators of the eight best ranked shops, only three have positive net profit margins, between 25% and 320%

► All of the shops are independent, meaning they are not part of any francize

► 19/50 own both online shops and physical stores

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Survey design Survey results ► Survey deployed in August

2015 ► Survey sent to more that 1250

users of social media► 119 replies => 9.5% response

rates► 22 eliminated as the

respondents – they do not shop online

► The age range is 18-39 ► This is similar to other

studies that state that the average age of online buyers is between 25-35, (Radu, 2015)

► 27/84 – consume organic products ► 13 buy organic products more

than 3 times per month, 5 do it once a week, while 79 purchase occasionally

► Consumption of organic products is determined by their health benefits, better taste, increased nutritional value

► 75/84 check the existence of organic logo on the product label

► Most important criteria for and organic e-shop: large variety of products, prices, easy of placing the order, fast delivery, security of online payments, return possibility

Consumer perspective matches the results found in the literare

The results of the survey among consumers that shop online

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Personalized offerings

Integrated analytics

Use of e-commerce software

Customization of the online experience

Client relationship management

Building customer trust

Conclusions: implications for managers of e-shops

Proposed strategies for the managers of e-shops

Preferences of customers

CRM software

Strategies for increasing

performance

Surveys

Third party assurance

Date:

Author:

The Bucharest University of Economic StudiesRomania

Thank you!October 23-24th 2015SEA 8 - “Spirituality and Creativity”, Sambata de Sus, Romania

PhD(c) Adina-Roxana [email protected]

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Radu, A. (2015, Februarie 9). In 2014, romanii au cumparat online produse de peste 1 miliard de euro!. retrieved September, 10, 2015 from http://www.gpec.ro/blog/in-2014-romanii-au-cumparat-online-produse-de-peste-1-miliard-de-euro

Charlton, G. (2011, August 30). Which e-commerce trustmarks are most effective?. retrieved September, 10, 2015 from https://econsultancy.com/blog/7941-which-e-commerce-trustmarks-are-most-effective

References mentioned in the previous slides

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Deciding whether to trust a website or not…

If you are shopping from a retailer you don’t know well, how would you decide whether to trust the website?

Source: Charlton (2011)

Reviewing the Performance of Organic E-shops in Romania

Small Business & Entrepreneurship

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