Published / Updated:
March 26, 2019

Central & Eastern Europe is a region with a very advanced mobile ecosystem as smartphone penetration in most countries is above 60%. GSMA also places almost all of the countries in the region in Advanced and Leader categories in its Mobile Connectivity Index. This means the region should be a key focus for digital merchants looking for new users and additional revenue.

At the same time, monetization in the region continues to remain a challenge. If the merchant uses only traditional payment methods, results can be underwhelming. While smartphone ownership is high, online banking solutions are not widespread: in fact, less than 25% of people in the region own a credit card. Due to lower income compared to Western Europe and the US pricing localization is also a key for digital merchants, whose standard service prices may not be affordable to local consumers.

In this report, we bring out data on Central & Eastern Europe that helps tackle these issues for digital merchants. We hope the report gives you a better understanding of the local digital ecosystem as well as guidance on how to modify your payments strategy to maximize efforts directed towards the region.