Throughout the first nine months of 2025, the Balkan eCommerce Summit team conducted an in‑depth survey among online merchants in Croatia to understand how their revenues are changing, which technologies they rely on, which sales and marketing channels perform best, and how customer habits are evolving. The study combines quantitative data from the respondents with qualitative input from owners and managers of Croatian online stores. This country-specific analysis summarises the most important findings from the survey and outlines the key trends, risks, and opportunities for Croatian eCommerce in 2026. You can download the full report here.
The “State of eCommerce in Croatia in 2025, a study by the Balkan eCommerce Summit 2025” shows a sector that is growing quickly on the revenue side, running on relatively cheap technology, and still heavily focused on the domestic market. At the same time, most businesses underinvest in content, loyalty, accessibility, and cybersecurity.
Strong Revenue Growth for Most Merchants
The revenue picture in early 2026 is distinctly positive:
- Almost 60% of respondents increased their online sales in the first nine months of 2025 vs. 2024, and the single largest group saw large growth above 20%.
- About a quarter reported stable revenue, while only 15% experienced a decline, and steep drops above 20% year-on-year are rare.
In short, growth and resilience dominate the Croatian eCommerce landscape, especially among businesses with an annual turnover above €250,000, where very strong growth is most common.
eCommerce is Still a Side Channel for Many, But Critical for a Large Minority
Online contribution to total revenue for businesses in Croatia is polarized:
- 45% of businesses generate less than 25% of their revenue online. Online is still seen as a supplementary channel in Croatia.
- Yet the other 40% generate more than half of their revenue online, and over one fifth state they sell exclusively online (100%).
Smaller businesses are more likely to be heavily digital, while many larger brands still sit in a strong omnichannel or offline‑heavy model.
Tech Stack: Low Monthly Costs and High Dependence on Simple Solutions
Most Croatian online stores are run on relatively low-cost infrastructure:
- Over 50% spend 0 – €1,000 per month on their platform and tools.
- Around 38% are in the €1,000 – €5,000 range, and only about 9% exceed €5,000.
Inventory and fulfillment are in a transition phase:
- Manual tracking with basic tools is still the most common approach (about 53%).
- Automated inventory management systems are used by 44%, especially among larger merchants and even more-so for those who have a strong omnichannel model.
- Outsourced fulfillment is marginal with only roughly 3% choosing third-party providers which does signify a gap in the market if anybody can find a way to improve on the manual tracking and basic tools they currently use.
The dominant mobile strategy is equally conservative: nearly 75% rely only on a mobile‑optimized website, while progressive web apps and native apps remain niche. Whether this is linked to the client’s lack of trust in the technology or the lack of market leaders pushing for innovation in this industry, it is yet unclear.
Marketing: Paid Channels Rule, Facebook Dominates Social
Revenue is driven mostly by paid digital channels:
- Social media advertising (29.7%) and Google Ads (28.0%) are almost neck‑and‑neck as the top sales‑generating channels, together accounting for more than half of respondents.
- SEO comes in third at (19.5%) and direct traffic (18.6%) form a strong second tier, especially among higher‑turnover businesses where brand and organic demand have more weight.
- Email marketing is marginal, named as the top sales driver by only 2.5% clearly showing room for improvement.
On social platforms specifically, there is a clear winner:
- Facebook is named by 64.4% as the social network delivering the best sales results.
- Instagram follows far behind (18.6%), while TikTok is barely present (1.7%).
Overall, Croatian eCommerce still rides heavily on Facebook and Google, with relatively limited diversification into owned media (content, email, and community).
Budgets: Modest Ad Spend, Even More Modest Content Spend
Advertising budgets are cautious for most players:
- 49.2% spend no more than €1,000 per month on ads.
- 26.3% are in the €1,000 – €5,000 bracket.
- Only 12.7% exceed €5,000 per month.
Content investment lags even further behind:
- 41.5% have no dedicated content budget at all.
- Another 40.7% spend up to €1,000 per month.
- Only 17.8% in total spend above €1,000, and just a mere 2.5% are above €5,000.
So while nearly every store spends something on paid reach, few treat content as a strategic, funded asset.
Digital Marketing Operations: Mostly In‑House and Agencies are Used Sparingly
How eCommerce teams in Croatia run their digital marketing – from ads, to the content so few businesses seem to do anyway:
- 47.5% manage everything fully in‑house.
- 36.4% use a hybrid model (in‑house + agency).
- Only 10.2% fully outsource to an agency.
- 5.9% say they do not do active digital marketing at all.
Agency budgets, where present, are usually modest:
- 45.8% do not work with any agency.
- Among those who do, most keep agency fees under €5,000 per month, and only 4.2% go above that.
Larger merchants are far more likely to use agencies at mid to high budget levels; whilst smaller ones mostly rely on scrappy in‑house teams, usually as an additional functionality for someone in the team to take on.
Customer Behavior: We Want Faster, Cheaper, More Mobile, and to be Satisfied at all times.
Merchants report three major shifts in customer behavior in recent years:
- 63.6% say customers now expect faster delivery and better service as a given.
- 56.8% see customers becoming more price‑sensitive and discount‑driven.
- 49.2% note that customers primarily buy via mobile and seek more personalized experiences.
Despite the rising demands, operational satisfaction metrics are strong:
- Unclaimed orders:
- 85.6% of businesses have under 5% unclaimed orders (products shipped and never picked up).
- Returns after acceptance:
- 95.8% report return rates are below 5%.
This suggests that, overall, Croatian eCommerce delivers what it promises: low friction at the final stages of the purchase, even as expectations rise. This is highly interesting considering the logistical hurdles of businesses handling fulfillment through manual tracking and basic tools.
Biggest Operational Challenge: Demand Generation, Not Payments
When asked about their single biggest operational challenge:
- 57.6% name customer acquisition and marketing.
- 34.7% name logistics and order fulfillment.
- Payment processing and fraud, plus “Other,” together account for less than 8%.
For smaller and mid‑sized businesses, marketing pressure is overwhelming. For the largest players, logistics starts to rival marketing as the main operational stress point.
Market Focus: Domestic First, Limited Cross‑Border Reach
Despite EU integration and euro adoption, cross‑border sales remain relatively modest:
- 43.2% of respondents do not sell outside Croatia at all.
- Another 37.3% have under 10% of customers abroad.
- Only about 19.5% report more than 10% international customers, and just 7.6% exceed 30%.
Expansion plans for 2026 reinforce this domestic focus:
- 63.6% plan to focus on growing the domestic market as they see a steady economy primed for growth.
- 17.8% aim at broader European or global markets, fueled by the country’s prime position within Central and Eastern Europe with easy access to the west.
- 15.3% plan to expand to neighboring Balkan countries, helped by growing industry in the last decade.
Euro adoption (2023 – 2024) has not dramatically reshaped the playing field:
- 55.9% say it brought little or no change.
- 30.5% report positive effects (easier transactions and clearer pricing).
- Only 13.6% felt a negative impact, mostly related to transition costs and customer confusion.
Accessibility and Cybersecurity: Two Systemic Weaknesses
Two structural risk areas emerge clearly across the market:
Accessibility (people with disabilities)
- 57.6% are not aware of accessibility requirements at all.
- 17.8% are aware but have not implemented measures.
- 15.3% are implementing changes now.
- Only 9.3% report being fully compliant.
Cybersecurity
- 50.0% on the dot sit at basic protection only (SSL, 2FA, secure passwords, updates), without audits or training for their staff.
- 28.0% have stronger protection (dedicated systems, regular backups, and staff training).
- 11.9% are not aware of potential cyber risks, and 10.2% are aware but have not yet taken specific measures.
In both areas, most merchants are stuck at whatever is “good enough”, leaving room for regulation, customer expectations, or – what is more likely the case – a major incident which would push the sector forward.
Loyalty and Programs: Strong Behavior, but Weak Structures
Customer loyalty behavior looks good; but programs – less so:
- 56.8% of businesses say over 15% of their customers are repeat buyers.
- Another 34.7% fall into the 5–15% repeat range.
- And only 8.5% report very low loyal customers under 5%.
Yet:
- 65.3% do not have a loyalty program at all.
- 30.5% offer only a basic points or discount program.
- Just 4.2% run advanced, tiered, personalized loyalty schemes.
Considering how much pressure there is from the market for increased personalization from clients, this mismatch suggests a major untapped opportunity: many Croatian merchants already have loyal customers, but few invest structurally to deepen and systematize that loyalty.
Payment Methods: Traditional Options Still Dominate
The payment methods in Croatia are fairly evenly distributed:
- Cash on delivery (30.1%), bank transfer (29.2%), and debit/credit cards (26.2%) together account for 85.5% of all mentions. A relatively even split all around surprisingly enough.
- Digital wallets make up 9.5%.
- “Other” and buy now, pay later options together comprise just 5.1%.
Modern payment options are most common among high‑turnover merchants, but traditional methods remain the backbone of Croatian eCommerce.
Emerging Technologies and AI: Interest Without a Full Shift Yet
In terms of future tech:
- 40.7% plan to implement AI personalization and chatbots.
- 39.8% plan advanced analytics and reporting tools.
- An identical 40.7% however, say they have no plans to implement any of the listed emerging technologies.
- And finally only 4.2% are considering AR/VR, blockchain, or IoT.
On actual impact so far we’re once again seeing polarity in respondents but none negative:
- 53.4% report no significant change in team efficiency from AI in the past year.
- A combined 45.7% report positive impact, split between moderate and strong improvements.
- Negative impact is virtually nonexistent.
So, AI is on the radar and starting to deliver, but has not yet fundamentally reshaped how most teams work. It’s promising that teams have bold plans to implement AI seriously across the organization from AI personalization to advanced analytics and tools.
In Summary: Fast Growth, Local Focus, and a Strategic Gap
The Croatian eCommerce sector in 2025 shows:
- Strong revenue growth year-on-year on top of low-cost infrastructure shows an attitude of being very resourceful doing as much as possible with fairly little.
- A domestic‑first mindset, with limited cross-border sales and cautious expansion plans most brands are still focused on building their stable foundations at home, but they are slowly but surely looking to export to both Western and Eastern markets more and more.
- Heavy reliance on paid channels with Facebook and Google being dominant as is the norm in the Balkans, with underpowered content, loyalty, accessibility, and cybersecurity strategies.
- Encouraging customer behavior indicators (low unclaimed orders and returns, and decent loyalty), suggests a solid foundation for more sophisticated retention and brand building.
2026 Outlook: A Stable but Crowded Market and Where Croatian eCommerce Should Double Down
In 2026, Croatian eCommerce is likely to remain fast‑growing but getting more crowded, with more players competing for the same domestic demand and paid channels (especially Facebook and Google) becoming noisier and more expensive. Most businesses will still run on low-cost tech and in‑house operations, while expectations around price, speed, and mobile experiences will keep rising.
To stay ahead rather than just keep up, we recommend that Croatian online businesses focus on four priorities:
- Turn paid reach into owned audience and loyalty
- Use Facebook and Google primarily to grow your own list and community (email, SMS, first‑party data), not just for one‑off sales.
- Build simple but clear loyalty programs and retention journeys (welcome series, post‑purchase flows, win‑back campaigns) so more of your revenue comes from repeat buyers rather than cold acquisition.
- Professionalize operations where they are most fragile
- Move gradually from manual inventory tracking to lightweight automation that reduces errors and frees up your time to focus on more important elements of your business.
- For brands with volume or complex logistics, test targeted outsourced fulfillment where it can improve speed and reliability without losing too much margin or control.
- Invest in trust: security, accessibility, and transparency
- Upgrade from “basic security” to documented processes: regular backups, security reviews, and basic staff training.
- Start a practical accessibility roadmap (contrast, keyboard navigation, alt text, clearer UX) to future‑proof the brand and expand your potential customer base.
- Communicate clearly about delivery times, returns, and data protection – this will matter more as the market matures.
- Use AI for decision‑making, not only for copy
- Keep using generative AI for content, but add AI‑assisted analytics and segmentation to understand which customers, products, and campaigns truly drive profit.
- Experiment with AI‑supported support flows (smart FAQs, triage bots, simple chatbots) that improve response time without ballooning headcount.
If 2023-2025 were the years of “doing more with less” on cheap tools and ad‑driven growth, 2026 will reward Croatian eCommerce brands that shift from pure acquisition to durable, trust‑based, and data‑driven growth on top of the solid operational discipline they already have.
The opportunity for the next few years is clear:
Move from cheap tools and expensive traffic toward richer content, smarter automation, more resilient security, and deliberate loyalty strategies. Do this all without losing the operational discipline that already works, clearly seen from the high satisfaction in customers and Croatia is one market that should not be underestimated.
The markets and partners behind these findings, together with our speakers who bring decades of hands-on eCommerce experience, can all be met in person in one place only. That place is the Balkan eCommerce Summit 2026. Many of the challenges and case studies that emerge from this Croatian survey and the broader Balkan study are discussed and solved there through real examples, practical panels, and direct conversations between merchants, platforms, logistics providers, and marketing experts. You can download the full version of the survey, with all data and detailed breakdowns, from this link: Download the full eCommerce survey report.