Covid-19, Estonia, Good for Business, Internet, Markets and Companies, Technology

The association's manager Tonu Vaat said in a press release that in the spring of 2019, the total turnover of e-commerce in Estonia was about 120 million euros a month, of which shopping at Estonian e-stores accounted for about half and cross-border shopping for another half. 

"April of this year however brought with it a doubling of the revenue of Estonian e-commerce stores and 200% growth for the biggest delivery companies, according to data from Maksekeskus. Hence we can conclude that the total revenue of Estonian e-stores in April was a record approximately 120 million euros," Vaat said.

The head of the Estonian E-Commerce Association said that the effect of the emergency situation on e-commerce may not be temporary, as many people who were not used to making purchases online earlier have now become convinced of its convenience.

Where the turnovers of Estonian e-stores have increased during the emergency situation, the volume of purchases made by Estonians at foreign online stores has dropped by about one-third.

"Cross-border purchases have usually made up about half of the total turnover of online purchases, in April their share was about 30%," Vaat said.

Data available from Maksekeskus, which according to the association mediates approximately 50% of all e-commerce payments in Estonia, shows that the turnover of Estonian e-commerce stores in April grew 178% year on year. In addition, about a hundred companies approached Maksekeskus per week to link up their business to the e-payment solutions offered by it. 

Maksekeskus CEO Art Lukas said that the changes on the market which got their start in March accelerated in April.

"With many stores well established in the business it seemed that their transaction volumes jumped to a new level -- not for a day, not for a short period of promotions, but permanently to a new level," Lukas said. 

At the same time, there was a large number of businesses that were looking for a new output after losing their traditional sales channel. 

"For how long this new level of e-commerce is here to stay is very difficult to say, there has been no setback whatsoever in the first half of May yet," Lukas said. 

The rise in e-commerce volumes is confirmed also by parcel statistics. Compared with the numbers of transactions, the numbers of parcels sent have grown more, according to the press release.

According to the three major parcel delivery and parcel station operators, DPD, Smartpost and Omniva, the volume of parcels in e-commerce grew by a staggering 237% in April compared with the same month a year ago, Vaat said.

According to the association, the total number of parcels in April was over 2.65 million, almost  1.5 million parcels more than in the same month in 2019. That figure does not include cross-border parcels handled by Omniva.