Research of the Hungarian and Romanian e‑commerce markets as the key to successful expansion
Is the local market too small for you? Then you will need to make up your mind to which country your online shop should expand.
Zorivo, the largest Czech online seller of piercing products, which runs the www.piercing.cz online shop, found itself in a similar situation.
Expansion is a comprehensive process that requires a professional approach. The journey starts with a detailed market analysis of the countries under consideration. Zorivo was aware of our activities on this front and therefore approached us for advice. How did it all end?
Online shop www.piercing.cz in detail
Behind the URL address www.piercing.cz hides the largest online shop in the Czech Republic for piercing products and hand‑made jewellery. The online store offers over a thousand piercing products. The offer of goods is constantly updated and expanded with original pieces that customers are unable to find elsewhere.
In addition to individual sales, the company offers the possibility to use the services of their own piercing studio. And if that's not enough, you can design jewellery according to your very own ideas. There are really no limits placed on your imagination.
Shipping companies can deliver the purchased jewellery. Alternatively, it is possible to pick up the package personally at a brick‑and‑mortar store in Brno.
What was the market research assignment?
Having made the decision to expand abroad, the online shop operator began to weigh up whether to expand to Hungary or Romania. At first glance, Romania looks more attractive. It is a much larger market geographically and in terms of population. The business potential should therefore be much higher.
However, the customer was still weighing up whether to expand to Hungary. In order to advance the decision, they asked us to carry out a detailed market analysis in both countries.
And analyse we did!
Conducting specifically focused market research is a comprehensive task. The whole process involves many factors and variables that need to be addressed. Having given the task some thought, it was decided, for the sake of greater clarity, to divide the analysis of the Romanian and Hungarian piercings and jewellery markets into two parts.
Part 1 – local competition analysis
Every expansion abroad requires thorough research of the competition in the given market. The competing online shops selling similar products were therefore the focus of our attention in the first part of the analysis. In the Hungarian and Romanian markets, we specifically examined the following information:
- Qualitative level of customer service of competing online shops
- The range of products and price levels
- Evaluation of online shops from the perspective of their customers
- Level and potential of competing social media marketing
Part 2 – market potential analysis
The second part of the market research focused on measuring the size of both markets and helping determine the more suitable market in terms of profitability. To perform the analysis, we compiled a set of metrics, which we used to evaluate the data obtained from both e‑commerce markets. The analysis also took into account the degree of competition based on a search of relevant keywords. Due to the well thought out approach, we obtained detailed data on the following market factors:
- Size of the piercing products markets in Romania and Hungary
- Overall level of competition
- Financial requirements for the implementation of foreign language PPC campaigns
- SEO optimization requirements
- Most searched keywords
The analysis of the obtained data and the resulting conclusions were surprising for the client. The analysis therefore helped the online shop www.piercing.cz to select the most suitable market for foreign expansion.
Did we manage to meet the client’s requirements?
We provided comprehensive information to the online store www.piercing.cz on the basis of a detailed analysis of the Hungarian and Romanian online markets for piercing products. It was therefore significantly easier for the online shop to decide to which country it would be more appropriate to expand to.
As mentioned above, in the beginning, the online shop operator was more inclined towards the Romanian market. The main reason for this was the geographical size of the Romanian market. However, after studying the results of our analysis, it turned out that the Hungarian market offered significantly greater opportunities. The market research revealed that the sale of piercing products simply didn’t show as much potential in Romania.
However, the market research was only the beginning
Having decided to follow our advice and expand to the Hungarian market, it was time to start working on the subsequent preparatory steps and the localization of the online shop. Next came the analysis of keywords in Hungarian, which was subsequently used for the localization of the online shop into the Hungarian cultural environment.
Are you also thinking about expanding your business abroad? If the local market is already too small for you, expansion abroad can be an exciting opportunity to grow your online business. In addition to Hungary and Romania, also Croatia, Bulgaria and Slovenia offer interesting opportunities.
As soon as you have decided to expand abroad, research into the foreign e-commerce market of interest, as well as into the interest in your products within the selected target group, is an absolute must. Contact us! We can conduct research and a thorough analysis of your chosen foreign market and advise you on how to proceed.
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