The paradox continues to exist: Moldovan consumers are increasingly looking for information on the Internet, but make purchases in offline stores. At the same time, international platforms, especially Temu, do transform the local market, and payment and delivery infrastructures are gradually modernizing.
These conclusions were made at the request of the Alliance of Small Businesses (AIM) by Ion Gutu, e-commerce and digital marketing consultant, founder of Rivosmart (Gomag’s official partner in Moldova), based on information in the report “E-commerce 2025”, based on data from 2024 and the first half of 2025, prepared by the American Chamber of Commerce in Moldova (AmCham) and Innovate Moldova.
E-commerce market. Key figures
In 2024, total sales of goods in Moldova will amount to 105.4 billion lei (+12.8% vs. the previous period), services – 51.5 billion lei (+11.3%).
Market structure – 61% goods, 39% services.
At the same time, online sales in Moldova have grown 2.6 times in six years. If in 2018, goods and services were sold for 2.03 billion lei, in 2024 – for 5.42 billion lei.
In 2024, e-commerce accounted for only 5.69% of total retail sales (vs. 5.56% in 2023). Compared to this, we are far behind the EU average and the level of Southeast European countries.
As of June 2025, there were about 2,800 online stores operating on the Moldovan market, including 1,806 stores selling tangible goods and another 997 platforms offering commercial services.
More than 160 platforms had shopping baskets but did not accept bank card payments.
Only about 80 online stores recorded monthly traffic exceeding 20,000 visitors, while about 45% of all online stores did not record at least one card payment transaction in the first half of 2025.
“The market continues to grow, but this growth is largely driven by price increases rather than real volume growth,” concludes Ion Gutsu.
The fact is that cumulative inflation has exceeded 71% since 2021, which has reduced the purchasing power of the population. And prices of goods, adjusted for inflation, practically remain at the level of 2020.
At the same time, the service sector has grown in real terms by almost 60%, becoming the main engine of growth.
Why is the share of domestic online commerce in Moldova so small?
The report identifies several structural barriers:
– very high density of offline retail, with stores on practically every corner;
– strong demand on external platforms (Temu, AliExpress, Amazon);
– small local market with low purchasing power.
In addition, most online stores do not provide real advantages: price, assortment, differentiation. That is, the Moldovan online store is just a “digital showroom”, not e-commerce in the Western sense.
Most local online stores are used as information tools, not as final points of sale: consumers search for a product online, add it to their cart, but physically buy it in the store.
Therefore, without real differences in price, assortment or services, the adoption of digital technologies remains limited.
What do they buy the most?
Among goods, the share of online sales to total retail is quite high for cosmetics (20.3%), electronics – 10.4% and airline tickets, which are almost 100% sold online.
In terms of monetary volumes: household appliances and consumer electronics accounted for 36.2% of the total value of e-commerce sales in Moldova. Large household appliances accounted for 49%, electronics for 27%, and small household appliances for 24%. These goods are less affected by external competition (Temu/AliExpress) due to their large volume and value exceeding the duty-free limit.
The structure of the home appliances and electronics market: 4 large online hypermarkets, 7 large multichannel retailers, 37 small online stores (including niche outlets). This structure explains why competition in this segment is concentrated and professionalized compared to other categories.
At the same time, the fastest growing market segments were food delivery, consumer goods (including gifts) and cosmetics.
Payments and logistics
Cash or bank card on delivery remained the main method of payment in e-commerce transactions for goods in Moldova.
According to the report, the structure of payment methods is as follows: cash / card on delivery – 65.4% (dominant method in 2024); online card payment – 11.9% (up from 6.8% in 2023); BNPL (buy now, pay later) – 16.8%. Used mainly for electronics, appliances and furniture (30-40% share in these categories). Bank transfer (5.5%) and instant MIA payments (0.4%) are very rarely used.
In 2024, cards of foreign (non-Moldovan) issuers accounted for approximately 48% of the total value of online purchases of services in Moldova, which is lower than the 58% recorded in 2023.
This is a great credit to the diaspora, who most often order online gifts, flowers and food for relatives/friends.
Self-collection by customers and own delivery by online stores are still widely used, especially in Chisinau.
Market growth is accelerated by the expansion of order fulfillment and delivery operators. The largest of them are: Glovo, Poșta Moldovei, Fan Courier, Nova Poshta.
Private courier services accounted for less than 30% of the total value of delivered goods purchased in e-commerce in 2024.
Online services are the most digitized segment
A total of 4.7 million orders for online services were made in 2024 with a total value of LE 3.52 billion.
Compared to 2018, a stable, constant growth was registered, with a much higher adoption rate than in the physical goods segment by 2.9 times.
In Moldova, the online services segment is almost completely dominated by two categories: air/rail/bus tickets and tourism with 67% and telecommunications with 16%. Together they account for 83% of the total online services market.
The reason is simple: these are services for which digital technology offers convenience, speed and better prices than offline.
Other growing segments: events and concerts – 7%; subscriptions and digital products – 3%; business services, cabs, sports – 2%; education – 2%; insurance – 1%; medicine – 1%; public transportation – 1%.
Diverse range, but still small compared to transportation and telecommunications.
There are 997 active platforms in 2025 (up from 480 in 2023). Among them: 200 for online education; 86 for travel and ticketing; 74 for sports and fitness; 43 for telecommunications; and 71 for insurance.
As for online exports, this segment remains in its infancy.
A total of 141,100 international parcels from Moldova are registered in 2024 with a total value of less than 9 million euros. Share: only 3.3% of the e-commerce market.
The reasons for this situation are poorly integrated international logistics, customs problems and bureaucracy, financial regulations incompatible with Amazon / eBay / Etsy.
