Investigating the characteristics of e-shops selling organic products in Romania; Benchmarking analysis of 50 e-shops selling organic products in Romania; Survey among internet users on online shopping for organic products

1. Date:
Author:
The Bucharest University of
Economic Studies
Romania
Reviewing the
Performance of
Organic E-shops in
Romania
November 5-6th
2015
THE 9th INTERNATIONAL
MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE
Bucharest, Romania
PhD(c) Adina-Roxana Munteanu
munteanu.adina@gmail.com
20130413_MESMAP_v5.ppt

2. 2
Investigating the characteristics of e-shops
selling organic products in Romania
Visual abstract
► Upward trend on the
organic market worldwide
► 10 mil internet users in
Romania in 2014
► Increasing online shopping
for all types of products
Analysing data of 50 e-shops in Romania…
… to identify the strategies that the e-shops managers can adopt to
improve their performance
► Benchmarking analysis of
50 e-shops selling organic
products in Romania
► Survey among internet
users on online shopping for
organic products
Context
Methodology
Analysis and discussion

3. 3
Research process design
Methodology
Literature
review
Data collection
Benchmarking
analysis
Survey
► Identification of
strategies in e-
commerce,
methodologies
used in previous
studies
Details in next slides
► Collection of
data regarding
e-commerce in
Romania
► Identification of
the e-shops in
Romania,
choosing the
sample
► Development of a
best practice
benchmarking
analysis to identify
robust strategies
that could be
adopted by e-
shops managers
► Designing an
online survey
for consumers
of organic
products that
purchase them
online
The objective: identify the strategies for improving
performance of e-shops

4. 4
From the analysis of the 50 e-shops…
The result of the benchmarking analysis
Assortment
of products
Ordering
and
return
policy
Payment and
delivery
User
friendliness
► Minimum value of the
order: 3-70 € (20/50)
► 33/50 shops require
confirmation of the
order
► 45/50 clearly state the
return policy
► 16/50 refer to the
previous law regarding
the right of the
consumer to return a
product
► Return of money in
max 30 days
Online
marketing
strategy

5. 5
From the analysis of the 50 e-shops…
The result of the benchmarking analysis
Assortment
of products
Ordering
and
return
policy
Payment and
delivery
User
friendliness
► In the sample, the most
popular payment method
is cash at delivery
► Irrespective of the
product purchase,
90% of the online
shopping in Romania,
consumers pay at
delivery (Radu, 2015)
► Most common delivery
method is by fast currier
► 21/50 shops use the
services of the Romanian
post, while 7 mention they
do not deliver this way
► For an average value of
the order >50€ , the
transport cost is 0 lei
► Delivery is 24 h -5 days
Online
marketing
strategy

6. 6
From the analysis of the 50 e-shops…
The result of the benchmarking analysis
Assortment
of products
Ordering
and
return
policy
Payment and
delivery
User
friendliness
► 75% of the shops offer
a mix of organic and
non-organic products
► The size of product
portfolio ranges from
72 products to over
4500
► 47/50 shops have food
products
► 41/50 sell cosmetics
► 37/50 offer dietary
supplement
► 27/50 sell detergents
Online
marketing
strategy

7. 7
From the analysis of the 50 e-shops…
The result of the benchmarking analysis
Assortment
of products
Ordering
and
return
policy
Payment and
delivery
User
friendliness
Online
marketing
strategy
► Easy to browse
► Available search
options
► Product filter
► Amount of information
on the products
► Site map
► Complete contact
► Terms and conditions
to the site
► Confidentiality
► FAQ section
► Customers reviews

8. 8
The profile of the shops according to
the user friendliness criteria
The result of the benchmarking analysis
► As visible in the graph, most
sites fail to provide complete
contact information
► Very few sites have consistent
and reliable customer reviews /
feedback
► A good FAQ section is quite
rare in the sample
The shops sample profile according to
the available user friendliness criteria
Source: own representation

9. 9
From the analysis of the 50 e-shops…
The result of the benchmarking analysis
Assortment
of products
Ordering
and
return
policy
Payment and
delivery
User
friendliness
Online
marketing
strategy
► Use of social media
(Facebook, Google +,
YouTube, Twitter,
Pinterest)
► Facebook data for 45 of
the sites – ranging from
1 to > 67000 likes
► 18/50 use business
directories
► 34/50 e-shops had the
promotional sales, price
cuts, special deals,
discounts

10. 10
The benchmarking criteria was used to
create a score and to rank shops
Result of the benchmarking criteria
The distribution of the scores ranges for the 50 shops in the non-financial criteria
Source: own calculations
► The companies in the sample are registered between 1993 – 2015, 22
with more that 3 years since incorporation
► Analysing the financial indicators of the eight best ranked shops, only
three have positive net profit margins, between 25% and 320%
► All of the shops are independent, meaning they are not part of any
francize
► 19/50 own both online shops and physical stores

11. 11
Survey design Survey results
► Survey deployed in August
2015
► Survey sent to more that 1250
users of social media
► 119 replies => 9.5% response
rates
► 22 eliminated as the
respondents – they do not
shop online
► The age range is 18-39
► This is similar to other
studies that state that the
average age of online
buyers is between 25-35,
(Radu, 2015)
► 27/84 – consume organic
products
► 13 buy organic products more
than 3 times per month, 5 do it
once a week, while 79 purchase
occasionally
► Consumption of organic
products is determined by their
health benefits, better taste,
increased nutritional value
► 75/84 check the existence of
organic logo on the product
label
► Most important criteria for
and organic e-shop: large
variety of products, prices, easy
of placing the order, fast
delivery, security of online
payments, return possibility
Consumer perspective matches the
results found in the literare
The results of the survey among consumers that shop online

12. 12
Personalized
offerings
Integrated
analytics
Use of e-
commerce
software
Customization
of the online
experience
Client relationship
management
Building
customer trust
Conclusions: implications for managers
of e-shops
Proposed strategies for the managers of e-shops
Preferences
of customers
CRM
software
Strategies for
increasing
performance
Surveys
Third party
assurance

13. Date:
Author:
The Bucharest University of
Economic Studies
Romania
Thank you!
October 23-24th
2015
SEA 8 - “Spirituality and Creativity”,
Sambata de Sus, Romania
PhD(c) Adina-Roxana Munteanu
munteanu.adina@gmail.com

14. 14
Radu, A. (2015, Februarie 9). In 2014, romanii au cumparat online produse
de peste 1 miliard de euro!. retrieved September, 10, 2015 from
http://www.gpec.ro/blog/in-2014-romanii-au-cumparat-online-produse-
de-peste-1-miliard-de-euro
Charlton, G. (2011, August 30). Which e-commerce trustmarks are most
effective?. retrieved September, 10, 2015 from
https://econsultancy.com/blog/7941-which-e-commerce-trustmarks-are-
most-effective
References mentioned in the previous slides

15. 15
Deciding whether to trust a website or
not…
If you are shopping from a retailer you don’t know well, how would you decide whether
to trust the website?
Source: Charlton (2011)