THE GROWTH OF E-COMMERCE IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

Abstract

E-commerce has an increasing importance in the world and every year the volume of e-commerce in the world and in all individual countries increases, and Serbia is no exception in this sense. It is the result of the fact that more and more advanced devices (mobile phones, smart watches, computers, tablets) are more and more available, then faster and faster internet and the increasing presence of payment cards and the increasing security of online payments. During the pandemic and lockdown, shopping suddenly became electronic, and the growth was huge – companies were pressured to make rapid digitalization, and although the post-pandemic trend is such that the growth of e-commerce has decreased, it has remained at a high level and is growing. In Serbia, trends follow similar paths. The growth in Serbia coincides with the trend of increasing online trade transactions, as well as increasing the share of mobile transactions. On the other hand, the Serbian market is specific in that the largest niche is occupied by fashion and not books and music as in the West, and the largest supplier is China. Taking over the market from classic, physical stores is not expected. The take-up percentage is too small, unless there is a big shift in the coming years, i.e. unless Generation Z comes to a dominant position with completely different buying habits and suddenly reverses the tendencies, which is very possible.