Under the Covid-19 pandemic, the share of e-commerce has increased significantly worldwide. Georgia is no exception in this regard. According to the report by Galt & Taggart, the size of the local market increased 3.2 times and amounted to 138 million GEL last year.
The founder of the E-Commerce Association says that due to the difficult economic situation in the country, there has been a decline in the market through the last few months as people try to save money.
According to Tamar Gogolashvili, the demand for e-commerce has been relatively reduced, although there is an expectation that online trade should increase. The growth trend of the e-commerce market, which has been accelerated by the pandemic last year, will continue in the coming years.
"Surveys show that a large part of consumers use e-commerce abroad, and their share is over 77%. That's a pretty big figure. This is a potential that local online stores can reach,” said Gogolashvili.
However, she notes that e-commerce is facing a very big challenge.
“In fact, e-commerce is facing a very big challenge due to the distrust of the user, which is caused by the malfunction of the platforms, the lack of many payment mechanisms. Delivery systems still work with delays, and so on.
In fact, if these challenges are eliminated, I think Georgian local e-commerce has a great potential to generate more sales.
The involvement of Georgian businesses is important in this regard, because the more quality products are offered to the market, more customers will move from international trade to local one, ”said Tamar Gogolashvili.
