Hi Webuserid,
Here is some information about the Bulgarian market:
Online shopping
In Bulgaria, Ukraine and Romania, 2% or less of the online population
shop online, according to a June 2002 Global eCommerce Report across
37 countries conducted by TNS Interactive. Not many Bulgarians have
credit cards and few have confidence in the banking system. Debit
cards are just now coming into popularity. Internet shopping from
abroad is even less popular, because of the low purchasing power, the
high cost of shipping and lack of security for parcels and mail. With
an official per-capita GDP of only about $1,500, Bulgaria's consumers
do not have much money to spend. However, e-commerce is expected to
grow in Bulgaria over the long term. The limited results of the survey
can be found here:
Internet access
Figures vary about the amount of internet use in Bulgaria. One survey
conducted by BBSSGallup showed that with a population of 8 million
people, Bulgaria has approximately 386,000 Internet users, or 4.8% of
the population over 15. Another indicated that web use is closer to
9.6%
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=2653
Retailing
Bulgaria's retail sector is dominated by small privately owned shops.
Seventy-six percent of retail trade is in private hands. Bulgaria's
first modern retailer, Stambouli, a Cyprus-based company entered
Bulgaria in 1984, and introduced the first modern retail stores in
Bulgaria in the early 1990's, the nationwide Bonjour chain. The second
modern retailer in Bulgaria, Shell, operates a nationwide network of
gasoline stations feature minimarts, with some shops co-located with
McDonalds restaurants. Local supermarket and food stores such as
Oazis, Elemak, Dallas and Fantastiko were the first modern
supermarkets, selling both Bulgarian and imported food products.
The German firm METRO, opened its first cash-and-carry membership
store in Sofia in 1999. METRO has expanded throughout Bulgaria, and
its entry into the market has been followed by the Greek consumer
goods chain store Ena, the Austrian Billa Heute supermarket chain, the
Turkish Ramstore, the French Monsieur Bricollage (household goods and
building materials and products) and the Greek Pioneer (men’s
clothes). The Turkish company Princess is opening a chain of smaller
food stores all around Bulgaria. The Austrian firm OMV also has a
chain of gasoline stations with minimarts all over Bulgaria. Also, the
Russian LUKOIL has several gasoline stations countrywide.
Most companies do not have websites. In fact, of the leading 100
companies, 30 have web-sites, and there is about 3,000 corporate sites
altogether. None of the foreign supermarkets have a dedicated web site
in Bulgaria let alone online shopping facility. Bulgarian supermarkets
have no websites nor online shopping option either. Buying food online
in Bulgaria is probably nonexistent.
Web portals and directories:
http://www.search.bg
http://www.hit.bg/
http://www.info.bg/
http://www.all.bg/
http://www.help.bg/
Webshop type websites:
http://www.get.bg/catalog/default.php
http://www.webshop.bg
http://www.teleshop.bg/
http://www.bazarbg.com/
http://www.bgstore.com/x/c.php?XShop_Session=430ca0ea7888bef5d4e8277d3808d639
http://www.okazion.bg/
http://www.91111.com/_a/large.asp?act=0&parent=1&loc=0
http://www.worldwidelevis.com/
http://www.bgdot.com/
http://www.easyshop.bg/cat.asp?CgyID=9930
All above sites are similar in the sense that they are specialized in
offering internet shopping of variety of products ranging from
electrical appliances, photo, audio and video equipments, to watches,
telephones, flowers, cosmetics, books and music. They are mainly only
in Bulgarian and do not offer food.
Flowers:
Margarita Flowers
http://www.margaritaflowers.com/english/index.asp
This is the first Bulgarian web flower shop in both English and
Bulgarian.
Building material:
Rudi KV
http://rudikv.ida.bg/index_a.htm
This is an online market for building materials and instruments in
both English and Bulgarian.
Sport equipments:
Extreme
http://www.x-3me.com/
This is a site with information about extreme sports only in
Bulgarian. There is an online magazine for buying clothes, equipments
and accessories for extreme sports.
Web companies:
Fourth Color
http://www.fourthcolor.com/index.php
Fourth Color provides web hosting and domain registration that can be
paid online. The site is excellent, in both Bulgarian and English.
The company in fact offers software, graphic design and online
e-commerce services.
Books:
Books.bg
http://www.books.bg/
This is an excellent site in both English and Bulgarian. It is well
designed. Books are offered in association with Barnes & Noble
bookstore. It offers the books about culture, history, politics,
cuisine, children books, art, DTY, tourist guides, etc.
***
Bulgarian Book (only in Bulgarian)
http://www.bgbook.dir.bg/
This site is only in Bulgarian and is not very esthetically advanced.
It offers the books about film, children books, textbooks, DTY,
science, art and literature, religion, etc.
***
For Bulgarians living abroad:
Bulgaria.com
http://www.bulgaria.com/index.html
This is a web site developed by Bulgarian expats living in the US and
directed to diaspora. It enables Bulgarians abroad to send flowers
home and it has started an online store of Bulgarian music titles. It
is still in the initial phase.
For foreigners living in Bulgaria:
Expat Shopping
http://www.expatshopping.com/shopping/DisplayPage?page=Bulgaria
Foreigners living in Bulgaria can order products from the UK and US
supermarkets as well as Scottish goods. |
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