Internet Activities

Ecommerce data in CEFTA region

General E-commerce Relevant Statistics Overview

Today’s composition of The Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) has been reduced to the Western Balkan economies of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Moldova (not belonging to the Western Balkan blocк). Market profiles including geography, general indicators for demographics, economy, business, and of course e-commerce are presented on this platform to give an overview of relevant information in a user-friendly and easy-to-understand manner and serve existing and new companies in e-commerce.

The total population of the CEFTA region is less than 20 million people (Montenegro has the lowest and Serbia has the largest population). The size of the population that is used for calculation of the indicators is the “use of the internet as a percentage of the population aged 16-64” and “internet use for purchasing goods and services as a percentage of internet users”. To complete the image of economic power we add GDP per capita, and PPP (current international $). All markets are in the group of upper-middle-income economies, with Kosovo* the poorest with the smallest GDP per capita and Montenegro the highest among them. See more market facts

Other sections

There’s a noticeable resemblance between the activities that CEFTA users predominantly engage in online and those they engage in the least. Over 90% of CEFTA users participate in activities such as telephoning or video calls and instant messaging through platforms like Skype, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Viber, exceeding the EU (27) average of 75%. Additionally, a significant proportion of internet users in Montenegro (88%) and Bosnia (69%) are active on social networks, such as creating user profiles and posting messages, compared to 65% of European users. They frequently seek information about goods and services online, read online newspapers, and seek health information.

However, in the CEFTA region, internet users tend to use the Internet less frequently for sending/receiving mail, internet banking, selling goods or services, and job searching and applications.

All data in the charts below refers to the percentage of individuals who used the internet in the last 3 months.

Source: Eurostat Internet use as Percentage of individuals who used Internet in the last 3 months
*Data is from the National statistical offices Source:North Macedonia: State Statistical Office, Albania from 2022, Kosovo* from 2020

Telephoning or video calls

Almost all Internet users (98.7%) from Albania are telephoning or making video calls as a percentage of individuals who used the Internet in the last 3 months. The least internet use for this activity is in North Macedonia at 89.2%.

Participation in social networks

Also, a high percentage of CEFTA Internet users are participating in social networks (creating a user profile, posting messages or other contributions to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) with Montenegro the most (87.76%) and Bosnia and Herzegovina the least (69.25).

Finding information about goods and services

A high percentage of CEFTA Internet users are engaged in finding information about goods and services with the highest at 76.3% in Serbia and the lowest at 54.2% in North Macedonia.

Reading online news sites/newspapers/news magazines

CEFTA internet users are reading online news sites/newspapers/news magazines. 86.41% of Serbian internet users and only 48.2% of Macedonians are reading online news and magazines.

Sending/receiving e-mails

69.11% of Internet users in Serbia were sending/receiving e-mails and only 29.93% in Kosovo.

Selling goods and services

A small percentage of CEFTA internet users engage online in selling goods and services. The highest percentage of Internet users are in Bosnia and Herzegovina at 15.46% who are engaged in selling goods and services online and the lowest percentage of Internet users in Montenegro at 6.11%.

Internet banking

Internet banking remains under-utilized in the CEFTA compared to the EU (27). On average, around 70% of EU (27) Internet users use the Internet to engage in e-banking.

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.