110.6 million sales: Serbia's e-commerce boom and how to ride the wave

Last year, Serbians clicked "buy" 110.6 million times online. That's one-third more than the year before. Behind that number is a shift that's no longer a trend — it's the new normal. If you sell anything in Serbia and you're not online yet, you're not early. You're late.

The numbers that matter

The National Bank of Serbia released its 2025 e-commerce report, and the headline figures are hard to ignore:

• 110.6 million online purchases in 2025 — up 34.3% from 2024
• 5,632 domestic online stores — 906 new ones opened in a single year
• The market is now worth an estimated $3.84 billion and growing at 6.5% annually
• Over 70% of Serbian internet users shop from their phones
• Instant payments surged 31% in Q1 2026 alone, with 31.9 million transactions

For context: Serbia has roughly 6.6 million people. That's about 17 online purchases per person per year. Five years ago, that number was closer to five.

Why now?

Three forces are converging at once.

Smartphones won. Two-thirds of online purchases in Serbia now happen on mobile. Customers don't sit down at a computer to shop — they buy from the bus, from the sofa, during lunch. If your checkout doesn't work on a 6-inch screen, you're losing sales every day.

Payments got easier. Payment integrators like Polako Finance connect your website to the payment system in a few clicks. DinaCard went digital with EMVCo-compliant security. Visa and Mastercard acceptance is standard. The friction that used to kill conversions is disappearing.

Trust crossed the threshold. Serbian consumers used to worry about online payments. The pandemic forced millions through that barrier, and they didn't come back. Returns policies improved, delivery infrastructure matured, and the NBS tightened fraud protections. The result: people who tried online shopping once now do it every week.

The 906 new stores — who are they?

Not all of them are tech startups. The wave of new online stores includes:

• Local manufacturers selling directly — ceramics, food, cosmetics, textiles
• Service businesses adding online booking and prepayment — salons, clinics, gyms
• Brick-and-mortar retailers launching web stores to reach customers outside their city
• Freelancers and creators selling digital products, courses, and subscriptions

What they all have in common: they needed to start accepting payments online, quickly, without building a payment infrastructure from scratch.

What separates stores that grow from stores that stall

We've onboarded hundreds of merchants at Polako Finance. The pattern is consistent:

Fast checkout wins. Every extra step between "add to cart" and "payment complete" loses 10–15% of customers. The best-performing stores offer card payments and minimal form fields — name, email, done.

Multiple payment methods matter. Some customers prefer cards. Some prefer QR. Some want to pay from their bank app. Offering only one option means turning away customers who would have paid with another.

Automatic order updates build trust. When a customer pays and immediately sees "payment confirmed" — and gets an email receipt — they come back. When they pay and hear nothing for hours, they call your support line. Or worse, they file a chargeback.

Mobile-first is not optional. If 70% of your customers are on phones, your checkout page needs to load in under 3 seconds, display correctly on any screen, and support autofill. A hosted payment page handles all of this for you.

Getting started is simpler than you think

Here's what it actually takes to go from zero to accepting payments:

1. Register with Polako Finance. You'll get a Platform ID and API Key — your credentials for the payment system.

2. Connect your store. We have ready-made plugins for OpenCart, WooCommerce, Tilda, and Flexbe. For custom-built stores, our API takes a single POST request to create a payment session.

3. Set up your webhook. This is the URL where we notify your store when a payment succeeds or fails. Your order status updates automatically — no manual checking.

4. Go live. Switch from test mode to production, and your customers can start paying. The whole process takes an afternoon, not a quarter.

You get a hosted payment page that's PCI DSS compliant (card data never touches your server), supports Visa, Mastercard, and DinaCard, and works in Serbian, English, and Russian.

The wave is here — the question is whether you're riding it

Serbia added 906 online stores last year. This year, the number will be higher. The customers are already there — 110 million transactions prove it. The payment infrastructure is ready. The regulatory environment is improving (SEPA integration, open banking, interchange fee reform).

The merchants who move now will build their customer base while the market is still growing at 30%+ per year. The ones who wait will enter a crowded market later and pay more to acquire the same customers.

If you're ready to start accepting payments, we're ready to help. Visit polako-finance.com or reach out at support@polako-finance.com.

In short

• 110.6 million online purchases in Serbia in 2025 — growth of 34.3%
• 906 new online stores launched in a single year
• 70% of buyers shop from mobile — checkout must be phone-first
• Multiple payment methods (cards + QR + bank) drive higher conversion
• Getting started takes an afternoon with ready-made plugins and a simple API