In January 2016 I wrote about the Romanian e-commerce market. I said the boom was over and that the efficiency phase was coming. Two things worried me back then. The first was marketplaces, which take the customer away from the small shop. The second was foreign competition, which at the time meant AliExpress and Amazon. Ten years later, both worries have come true, on a scale I did not expect.
The market in numbers: big, but no longer growing as before
Estimates for 2025 put online sales of goods in Romania at around €8 billion. MerchantPro puts the figure at about €8.1 billion, up 6%, and Gomag at more than €8 billion, up 7–8%. Some European reports also count services (tickets, travel, food delivery) and get close to €13 billion. Forecasts for 2026 go above €8.5 billion, with growth of about 5%.
What I read in these numbers: the market is still growing, but at the pace of a mature market. And when a market slows down, what matters is who takes the slice of growth that is left.
eMAG: a one-billion-lei Black Friday and a market with one centre of gravity
On 6 November, eMAG announced orders worth about 1.041 billion lei (roughly €210 million) in a single Black Friday day. That is 55 million lei more than last year, from more than 714,000 customers. The marketplace grew faster than the rest: more than 15,500 sellers sold over 1.4 million products, 40% more than in 2025.
For the whole of 2025, eMAG reported sales of 10.6 billion lei in Romania and 87 million products ordered. The company says 60% of Romanians who shop online also buy on eMAG. Even if you treat that figure with the caution a press release deserves, the picture is clear: most online shoppers in the country pass through one platform.
Oligopoly, or just a very strong leader?
In my view, Romanian e-commerce today works like an oligopoly with a single dominant pole. There are other large players in their own categories: electronics, fashion, books, pharmacy. But for the average shopper, “I’ll look online” increasingly means “I’ll look on eMAG”. That is not an accusation. It is the result of very good execution: logistics, parcel lockers, a delivery subscription, the marketplace.
The problem is something else. When you become the market’s infrastructure, your rules become the market’s rules. In December 2020, Romania’s Competition Council fined eMAG about 32 million lei (around €6.7 million) for abuse of a dominant position. The investigation concluded that between 2013 and 2019 the platform had favoured its own offers over those of marketplace sellers. It was also required to change its display algorithms. The lesson still stands: a marketplace that is also a seller always has a conflict of interest.
For a Romanian shop, this means exactly what I wrote in 2016: a marketplace is a channel, not a foundation. Commissions, display rules and in-platform advertising look fine until the day they change. eMAG says sellers made 9 lei in sales for every leu spent on in-platform ads during the campaign. Good for them, but the customer still belongs to the platform, and advertising becomes an entry fee.
I have also written about Black Friday in Romania and the illusion of discounts. A billion lei in one day is a nice record, but it says nothing about how much is left for the sellers who made part of it, after commissions and discounts.
Temu, Trendyol, Shein: the competition is no longer at the door, it is inside
The difference from the AliExpress and Amazon of 2016 is not only volume but the model. Temu and Shein ship small parcels straight from China at prices no Romanian importer can match. Trendyol, the Turkish platform, arrived with a full marketplace and aggressive prices in fashion.
The press quotes impressive numbers: millions of monthly users for Temu and more than a million buyers for Trendyol, although the methodology is not always clear. What is certain is that these platforms have become part of many Romanians’ shopping routine in just a few years.
Where the risks are
- Product safety. In May 2026 the European Commission fined Temu €200 million under the Digital Services Act. The reason: Temu had not properly assessed the risk of illegal or dangerous products being sold on its platform. In October the Commission accepted a set of measures proposed by Temu. European consumer organisations have repeatedly found toys, cosmetics and appliances that do not meet EU rules.
- Unequal competition. A Romanian shop pays VAT, follows labelling, warranty and returns rules and keeps stock in a local warehouse. For years, low-value parcels from outside the EU were exempt from customs duty. No local entrepreneur could match that cost advantage.
- Rules written elsewhere. Romanian shoppers leave their data and habits on platforms whose rules are decided far from Romania, and local sellers have no say.
- Money leaving the country. Every order shipped directly from outside the EU is a sale that a Romanian shop or warehouse no longer makes.
What changed on taxes
Governments have started to react, but chaotically. From 1 January 2026, Romania introduced a 25-lei fee on non-EU parcels worth under €150, then scrapped it from 1 November. At EU level, a flat €3 customs duty on low-value parcels has applied since 1 July 2026. It is a temporary fix until the future EU customs data hub, and a handling fee is still being discussed. Three euros do not close the price gap, but they show that Europe no longer treats the €5 parcel as a detail.
Between a local giant and the foreign giants: what a Romanian shop can do
My view, after 20 years in e-commerce: the small or mid-sized Romanian shop is caught in the middle. Above it, eMAG takes the shopper who wants safety and next-day delivery. Below it, Temu and Shein take the shopper who wants the lowest price and is willing to wait. You cannot compete on both fronts at once, but you can choose a place between them.
- Niche and expertise. Categories where customers need advice, not just a price: technical products, health, hobbies, local products.
- A direct relationship with customers. Email, community, loyalty: anything that does not depend on someone else’s algorithm. I said it in 2016 and it is even truer today.
- Speed and service. Fast delivery, easy returns, a person who answers in Romanian. A parcel from China cannot offer that. I wrote separately about quick commerce in Romania.
- Marketplaces, with a calculator in hand. Sell on eMAG or Trendyol to be found, but work out your margin after commissions and ads, and build your brand somewhere else.
- Getting ready for the next shift. The next middleman may be the AI agent that does the shopping for the customer. And it does not look at banners, it looks at good product data.
Ten years later
When I wrote about e-commerce in Romania in 2016, marketplaces were a temptation and AliExpress was a curiosity. In 2026, the dominant marketplace has become the market’s infrastructure, and Asian and Turkish platforms are full-blown competitors. The core idea of that article still holds: whoever knows their customers and controls their costs wins. Only the margin for error is now much smaller. If you want the technology side too, I wrote about what has changed in e-commerce since MarketOnline.
The eMAG figures are those announced by the company. The figures on Temu and Trendyol users are press estimates. Describing the market as an oligopoly is my own opinion.