Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is one of the most exciting regions for cross-border e-commerce, offering significant growth opportunities for Hungarian online retailers. Expanding into neighbouring markets is often the most logical next step – but geographical proximity can be misleading.

What works in Budapest may not necessarily deliver the same results in Prague, Bucharest or Warsaw. Payment habits, preferred delivery methods, marketplaces and customer expectations vary from country to country – and so does what makes an online store feel trustworthy to local shoppers.

Choosing the right market is therefore not simply a matter of geography. Demand, localisation, marketing and logistics all need to be considered together.

Let's take a closer look at some of the most interesting CEE markets for Hungarian online retailers.

This article was created as part of the collaboration between Everigo, a company supporting Hungarian e-commerce businesses with personalized international growth services — and Pactic, which provides cross-border logistics solutions for merchants planning international expansion.

Romania: One of the region's e-commerce growth engines

With a population of more than 19 million, Romania is one of the largest and most dynamic e-commerce markets in the region. Its size and proximity to Hungary make it an obvious potential destination for Hungarian online retailers looking to expand, but there are several local characteristics worth considering.

Payment habits: Cash on Delivery (COD) continues to play an important role in Romania, even as online card payments become increasingly popular. Businesses entering the market should therefore have a payment and logistics setup capable of handling COD orders efficiently.

Shopping habits: Romanian consumers tend to be price-sensitive, while promotional periods – particularly Black Friday – play an important role in online retail. Building trust is also essential. A properly localised webshop, Romanian-language communication and easily accessible customer service can make a significant difference for a foreign brand that is not yet well known locally.

Mobile first: Browsing and shopping via mobile devices play a major role in Romanian e-commerce, making a smooth mobile shopping experience a basic requirement rather than an added advantage.

From a logistics perspective, Romania is also an interesting market because it can be served efficiently from inventory held in Hungary. This means that testing the market does not necessarily require opening a local warehouse from day one. As order volumes increase, however, it may become worthwhile to consider whether local fulfillment could provide faster or more cost-efficient service.

Czechia: A mature market with high expectations

Czechia is one of Europe's most developed and mature e-commerce markets. This creates significant opportunities, but also strong competition: Czech consumers are experienced online shoppers who know exactly what level of service they expect from an online store.

Pickup points and parcel lockers: One of the defining characteristics of Czech e-commerce is the popularity of out-of-home delivery solutions, including pickup points and parcel lockers. For a Hungarian webshop entering the market, offering home delivery alone may therefore not be enough.

High customer expectations: High-quality localisation is particularly important. Poorly translated product descriptions, an unnatural checkout experience or unclear customer communication can quickly undermine trust. The same applies to logistics: customers expect delivery to be fast and predictable.

Payments: Electronic payment methods have a strong position in the market, making a fast, simple checkout experience adapted to local expectations particularly important.

From a logistics perspective, Czechia is a good example of why cross-border delivery is about more than simply moving a parcel from Hungary to another country. It is equally important to offer customers the delivery options they are already accustomed to using in their home market.

Slovakia: A logical first test market

With a population of more than 5 million, Slovakia is a natural first step into international expansion for many Hungarian online retailers. It is nearby, uses the euro, and Slovak consumers are accustomed to purchasing from foreign online stores.

Openness to cross-border shopping: A significant proportion of Slovak consumers buy from online retailers based abroad, particularly those in neighbouring countries. This can create a favourable environment for Hungarian merchants entering the market.

Balanced payment and delivery preferences: Electronic payments are widely used, while Cash on Delivery still plays a role. At the same time, pickup points and parcel lockers are becoming increasingly popular.

Language is not a minor detail: Despite the close relationship between the Czech and Slovak e-commerce markets, treating them as one market from a localisation perspective can be a serious mistake. If you are targeting Slovak customers, you need to communicate with them in Slovak – not through a copy of your Czech webshop.

Because of its size and proximity, Slovakia can be particularly suitable for testing your cross-border operations at a smaller volume before expanding into larger markets.

Poland: Huge potential with it's own rules

With a population of close to 38 million, Poland operates on an entirely different scale. Its size makes it extremely attractive, but competition is also intense, and several local solutions dominate the market that foreign merchants need to understand and accommodate.

The role of marketplaces: Allegro is a major player in Polish e-commerce, which means that a market-entry strategy may need to consider marketplace presence alongside operating your own webshop.

BLIK and local payment habits: BLIK is one of the key payment methods in Polish e-commerce. This is a good example of why simply translating a Hungarian webshop is not enough: the entire shopping experience needs to be adapted to local habits.

Parcel lockers: Automated parcel delivery is particularly popular in Poland, and the InPost Paczkomaty network has become one of the most recognisable elements of the country's e-commerce infrastructure.

For Poland, choosing the right last-mile partners and offering out-of-home delivery should therefore form part of the market-entry strategy from the beginning.

Don't forget logistics when choosing a market

The attractiveness of a new market should not be assessed solely on population size, e-commerce turnover or expected demand.

It is just as important to understand how much it will cost to deliver an order, how quickly the parcel can reach the customer, which delivery methods local consumers expect, how Cash on Delivery works, and what happens when a customer wants to return a product.

A market that looks highly attractive on paper can quickly become less appealing if logistics costs are too high, delivery times are not competitive or you cannot provide the delivery options local customers are used to.

Before entering a new country, it is therefore worth considering:

which home delivery, pickup point and parcel locker options are available;

expected delivery times and the total logistics cost per parcel;

how important Cash on Delivery is and how COD settlements are handled;

what kind of local returns solution you can offer;

the parcel volume you expect to generate in the market;

and at what point local or regional fulfillment may become worthwhile.

Test first, Then scale

International expansion does not necessarily mean opening a warehouse in every new country from day one.

With Pactic's cross-border solutions, you can serve neighbouring markets from inventory held in Hungary, allowing you to test demand with a lower initial risk.

Once order volumes increase, fulfillment can become the next step. Moving part of your inventory closer to your target market can shorten delivery distances, speed up order processing and help provide an even better customer experience.

This allows your logistics setup to evolve together with your webshop:

Inventory in Hungary → cross-border market entry → volume growth → fulfillment → further regional expansion.

You don't need to build a new logistics setup in every country

One of the defining characteristics of the CEE region is that countries located relatively close to one another can still have very different delivery preferences.

Parcel lockers are a major part of the delivery landscape in Poland, out-of-home delivery is also well established in Czechia, while in other markets home delivery and Cash on Delivery continue to play a more significant role.

If you contract separately with courier companies in every country, international growth can quickly mean managing multiple integrations, labelling processes, invoices, COD settlements and return flows.

The idea behind Pactic's multi-carrier cross-border model is that you do not have to adapt every market to a single courier company. Through one logistics partner, you can access multiple countries and local last-mile providers, allowing you to choose delivery solutions that better match the needs of each individual market.

Pactic can also support the collection and settlement of Cash on Delivery payments, while local return addresses can make international returns simpler and more cost-efficient.

Be local to your customers – Think regionally behind the scenes

One of the keys to successful international expansion is ensuring that customers do not feel as though they are buying from a webshop that simply happens to ship abroad.

Your webshop language, payment options, customer service, delivery methods and returns process all contribute to the experience that determines whether a customer trusts your business.

This is where Everigo can support businesses with market entry and localisation. Rather than simply translating a webshop, its native-language specialists adapt the content to the cultural and shopping habits of the target market. Everigo can also provide outsourced customer service with local phone numbers and native-speaking agents.

Behind the scenes, Pactic can help ensure that your logistics also reflect local expectations – through cross-border parcel delivery, access to multiple last-mile providers, COD management, local return solutions and, once the right volume has been reached, fulfillment services.

This means you do not have to rebuild your entire operation from scratch every time you enter a new country.

Your customers get a local experience, while you build a logistics setup that can scale regionally.

Ultimately, this is what successful expansion across CEE is about: not simply shipping parcels abroad, but entering a new market with a webshop, customer experience and logistics setup that are all adapted to the expectations of local customers.

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