## 2 Related Work and Market Analysis
This indicator is expected to increase to $380 by 2025. The number of e-commerce users in Romania has been growing steadily every year. In 2017, it was 5.2 million, reaching 8.3 million in 2018. It is estimated that by 2025, the number of e-commerce users will increase to around 10.7 million.  
It can be said that during the pandemic, the behavior of users regarding the way Romanians buy has changed drastically, with an increase of approximately 13% in terms of e-commerce and appetite for online shopping, in direct relation to 2019. In addition to all of this, the average amount they spend on online shopping has grown impressively, being approximately 41% higher than the previous year. An accelerated trend was seen in the area of catering services, such as cooked food delivery, registering a 124% increase over the previous year. The number of users paying online by card has grown by an impressive 14% this year compared to 2019, according to a survey conducted by iSense Solutions for GpeC. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the beauty sector experienced a spectacular jump, with online sales increasing by 309.5% in April 2020 compared to the same month of the previous year. The books, movies, and music segments also saw considerable growth in online sales, up 22.4%.  
Although Romania ranks in the top 10 areas with high-speed internet access, with more than 10 million Romanians using the internet every day and around 300,000 making daily purchases online, the country remains behind in terms of average online purchases, with only 45% of internet users having made at least one online purchase in the last 12 months. Bulgarian ranks lower, with 42% of internet users making purchases online.  
Therefore, the method of penetration of electronic commerce has increased in Romania from 26.5% in 2017, reaching approximately 43% in 2020, and by 2025 it is expected that this share will reach over 57% according to sources from Digital Market Outlook.  
The MerchantPro platform reports a 5.4% sales growth in Q1 2024 compared to the same period last year. This trend is similar to the overall market trend, according to the MerchantPro Compass indicator, which shows a 5.5% increase in the number of transactions in 2023 compared to 2022. Although the pace of growth has slowed, the market maintains a positive trajectory, demonstrating increasing maturity. An analysis of active online stores on the MerchantPro platform reveals an average sales growth of 5.9% between January and March 2024, compared to the same period in 2023. The number of customer orders saw a moderate increase of 5.4%, with a significant increase of 14% in February 2024. Figure 6 represents the increase of sales and orders registered by active online stores in the period January-March 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.  
The analysis carried out by MerchantPro is based on data from online stores, which are active in 2022 and 2023, and this exposes us to the fact that there is an increase in sales by only $3 from one year to the next. In terms of the number of orders placed by customers this year, growth remains moderate at +5.5%. According to the MerchantPro data, the most dynamic market segment was Baby Products, where the number of orders increased by more than 20%. In contrast, for the first time in three years, the fashion segment contracted, with a -10% drop in the number of transactions. Against the backdrop of inflation and declining purchasing power, the average order value recorded by stores on the MerchantPro platform was around $2.45 trillion, driven by China's significant influence. North America came in second with $055.5. In Q1 of 2023, the increase in the number of transactions was +27%, but in Q2 the pace slowed to 5.8%, followed by two consecutive quarters with declines compared to the equivalent periods in 2022. Quarter 3 saw a decline of -1% and Quarter 4, traditionally the best quarter of the year, saw a decline of -3.8%.