Romania's E-Commerce Market

The online penetration rate places Romania among the more dynamic e-commerce markets in Central and Southeastern Europe, trailing only Poland and the Czech Republic in the region.

 

The underlying trend is one of moderation rather than acceleration. After the sharp pandemic-era boom, Romania's e-commerce growth rate has slowed and now sits below its pre-pandemic growth trajectory, a pattern consistent with what CBRE is observing across most of Europe's larger, more established e-commerce markets.

 

A Market Still Building on Strong Fundamentals

Despite the deceleration in growth rates, Romania's underlying fundamentals remain supportive of continued expansion:

• High internet penetration
• Leading fixed broadband speeds
• A rapidly expanding logistics backbone
• A growing parcel locker network
• Road infrastructure gains

 

Category Trends: Food and Health & Beauty Lead the Way

 

Looking at category-level performance between 2021 and 2025 (excluding the anomalous 2020 pandemic spike), Food and Health & Beauty have registered the strongest e-commerce growth of any goods category in Romania, both significantly outpacing the overall market. CBRE expects both categories to continue outgrowing the broader e-commerce market in the coming years, alongside Appliances & Electronics. Fashion, by contrast, is expected to see a flatter growth curve, as inflationary pressure continues to weigh on discretionary purchasing power.

 

The Romanian Story Within a Broader European Shift

 

Romania's trajectory mirrors a wider transition now underway across European e-commerce, detailed in CBRE's pan-European report, "The Next Chapter: Retail and Logistics in Europe's E-Commerce Future." That report finds that European e-commerce sales volumes continue to rise, yet in most major markets the growth of e-commerce's share of total retail has converged toward pre-pandemic trend lines, the same pattern visible in Romania's own data. The UK, Germany and France together still account for more than half of all European online sales, though CBRE notes that less mature markets are steadily increasing their share of the European total as adoption deepens, a dynamic that positions Romania favourably as one of the region's still-maturing markets.

 

The pan-European research also identifies Grocery and Health & Beauty as the fastest-growing e-commerce categories continent-wide, echoing the exact pattern seen in the Romanian market. 

 

On the logistics side, the European report observes that e-commerce-driven warehouse demand is shifting from a period of rapid expansion toward longer-term optimisation, with growing reliance on third-party logistics (3PL) providers and increasingly standardised warehouse specifications, as occupiers prioritise flexibility, automation-readiness and operational efficiency. Romania's own doubling of I&L leasing activity over the past decade reflects this same structural shift, positioning the country's logistics real estate market to benefit from continued omnichannel and e-commerce-driven demand, even as growth rates normalise.

 

Outlook

 

Romania's e-commerce market is entering a more mature phase of development, one defined less by explosive year-on-year growth and more by structural drivers. For retailers, logistics operators and investors, this points to a market that remains attractive for medium-to-long-term positioning, considering a steadier, more sustainable expansion.

 

Access the full report: The short version of the Romania E-Commerce Market report is available to download directly from this page. For the extended version of the report, including additional data, deeper market analysis and further country-level detail, please reach out to [email protected].