The number of orders placed in 2022 with local online stores registered on the regional SaaS e-commerce platform MerchantPro was 12.5 percent higher compared to 2021, while the value growth was 22 percent, according to Agerpres.

According to centralized data, the buyers’ purchasing behavior fluctuated between „very cautious” in March, after the outbreak of the Ukraine war, when transactions increased by just 5 percent, to „exuberant” in May, when the increase was 30 percent.

Orders placed with all the online stores that use the MerchantPro platform, including those that started their activity on the platform in 2022, amounted to a combined of nearly 250 million euros. The average order was 56 euros, 12 percent up from 50 euros in 2021.

The notable trends in 2023 envisage investments in automation, including for the integration and adoption of artificial intelligence solutions, as well as increasing store performance from the perspective of visitors, at storefront level.

„Process automation aims at minimizing human intervention, increasing the productivity of internal flows and reducing the risk of error. Therefore, the merchants’ interest has increased in the integration of their online stores with process and operation optimization solutions, including AI systems such as ChatGPT, Google Translate or Deepl, which will allow the traders to differentiate themselves from competitors through content and customization. Also, online entrepreneurs are oriented towards improving the experience of website visitors, with immediate effect on the rate of conversion and sales. From this perspective, investments in increasing the loading speed, in simplifying the check-out process or the post-sale fulfillment are increasingly common,” MerchantPro said in a release on Monday.

The MerchantPro survey was conducted on data recorded by over 1,500 local online stores.

MerchantPro is a project of the ShopMania Net company intended for Romanian and European e-commerce entrepreneurs, providing them competitive e-commerce functionalities, professional support services and customized solutions adapted to specific development needs.

In its more than 15 years of presence on the market, over 5,000 online regional stores have used the platform’s functionalities.

Agerpres