Kosovo Banking Association in cooperation with VISA held a joint forum about ways to unlock the potential of E-Commerce in Kosovo
11 October 2022, Prishtina
Kosovo Banking Association (KBA) with the support and cooperation of Visa has organized the forum discussions regarding the future of e-commerce in Kosovo, understanding the trends, opportunities, and challenges.
The European Online Trade report, published by the "E-Commerce4All" platform, indicates that compared to other CEFTA countries, Kosovo has the highest percentage of internet users in Europe. Meanwhile, if we talk about online trade, the report indicates that in Kosovo, every second citizen has bought through the internet (48 percent). The report shows that 16 percent of Kosovo citizens buy up to 2 times a year online, 15 percent up to 5 times and at 3 percent are those who buy up to 10 times.
CEFTA citizens typically spend up to 5 euros per purchase. For Kosovars, this amount is 40 percent, up to 500 euros is 22 percent, while around 1000 euros is only 2 percent.
In fact, the report shows that 98 percent of citizens in Kosovo buy online from local sellers. Only 8 percent of them indicate that they buy from sellers coming from non-European countries, 5 percent from sellers all over the world, 4 percent from sellers within the European Union countries.
Such trends for online shopping have increased in these numbers mentioned above, especially during the COVID 19 pandemic, which in some form came as an imposition due to total isolation. Experts estimate that a rapid development took place in 90 days, which was predicted to transform the market in the next 10 years. E-commerce and retail have since continued to hold an important and essential position for both the economy and society.
At the forum was concluded that E-Commerce is already the industry with the highest potential in Kosovo, because until the last few years Kosovars preferred shopping in the traditional way. Now the consumer, but also the businesses, are clear that their attention is focused precisely on the development of this category of service and the improvement of digitized services. E-commerce is the first venture that can bring markets together by launching rapid trade between countries in the region.
The main key take aways from the forum were that in the market there is lack of POS equipment’s, the need to provide incentives on the part of sales companies for digital payments, the need to increase cyber security and data protection among the actors, and the need to raise awareness through information campaigns aimed at citizens to reduce cash payments.
In addition to the fact that many businesses have now turned to digital marketing and online sales, banks are also making interesting changes, where it is worth mentioning that some banks in Kosovo have initiated the development of Digital Wallet. Now, we can easily say that the digitalization of banking services has gained a good dynamic since the banks have managed to work significantly in increasing cyber security by offering, according to customer requirements, contemporary digital services for payments and transfers. Some of the best and most successful banking practices are electronic invoicing, such as the ability to pay bills through an electronic website or application. Now m-commerce has become an important part of e-commerce. E-commerce makes it easier for people to bank internationally or pay from another country, without having to worry about banking regulations or exchange rates.
The Forum was opened with an introductory remark by Petrit Balija, CEO of KBA and Slobodan Lukic, Head of Merchant Sales & Acquiring for South East Europe, VISA.
The Forum continued its session with a panel which was moderated by Adonis Bllacaku, Head of Retail & Marketing Department, Banka per Biznes, while the panelists of the forum were Bleron Havolli (Gjirafa), Florent Lila (RBKO), Ideal Shala (eGjeta), Slobodan Lukic (Visa), Yll Gashi (TEB) and Vigan Disha (Speeex).