There are currently 7,700 e-shops in Estonia, with the number having increased by around 1,700 during the pandemic.
“In 2020, we monitored domains using the e-commerce platform and according to the data, there were about 6,000 different e-shops operating in Estonia at that time,” said Tonu Vaat, CEO of the Estonian E-Commerce Association.
“In cooperation with Omniva and Smartpost, the Estonian E-Commerce Association analyzed the numbers of both unique and active customers last month. More specifically, how courier or parcel machine orders were placed in the last six months, and, therefore, who was involved in e-commerce. Omniva and Smartpost are involved in 75% of all deliveries to parcel machines, with 95-98% of e-shops in Estonia offering a delivery option through these two companies,” said Vaat.
Vaat added that the likelihood that active e-shops in Estonia did not use Omniva or Smartpost as a partner was therefore very low.
“If we account for this margin of a few percent, we can say that as of June, there are around 7,700 different e-shops in Estonia, which means that over the last two years the number of e-shops in Estonia has increased by almost 2,000,” Vaat added.
The Estonian E-Commerce Association defines e-commerce as the sale of goods or services via electronic transactions over the Internet. An e-shop is a virtual online store, which facilitates e-commerce.
According to Bank of Estonia (Eesti Pank), in 2021, Estonian e-shoppers’ spending increased by more than 50%, to a total of EUR 2.5 billion. In the same year, the volume of parcels delivered by the Estonian E-Commerce Union to parcel machines alone, rose to more than 12 million.
It is therefore fair to say that E-commerce in Estonia has boomed and it already accounts for more than 20% of total retail trade in the country.
The rapid growth is also reflected in the increasing membership of the Estonian E-Commerce Association, which doubled in the last two years, from around 250 members in 2020 to a current figure of almost 500. Established in 2008, the Estonian E-Commerce Association is an umbrella organization, which, among other things, awards the “Secure Shopping” Trustmark and promotes e-commerce in Estonia. (ERR/Business World Magazine)
