New report on ecommerce in Poland published

Ecommerce in Poland is developing rapidly. With 75% of Internet users who bought something online and about 10 million online shoppers, Poland is a very interesting market for investors and foreign companies. A new report on the Polish online retail industry substantiates this.

Online research agency Gemius wrote, together with the Polish Chamber of Digital Economy, “E-Commerce in Poland 2014: Meet consumers, observe trends, invest, find partners”, which can be downloaded for free.

According to the report, Poland, which has a population of 38.3 million people, has about 17 million potential online customers. The reach of ecommerce related websites (online shops, online auctions, price comparison and group buying websites) among the Polish Internet population is 78% in Poland, while in other Central European countries like Hungary (72%), Czech Republic (60%) and Slovakia (52%) this percentage is noticeably lower.

One of the fastest-growing ecommerce markets
The writes continue by saying Poland is one of the fastest-growing ecommerce markets in the European Union. A stable, ca. 25% growth year-on-year is observed. The online retail industry grew from €2.5 billion in 2009 to €5.2 billion in 2013 and is expected to have reached €6.2 billion at the end of 2014. And according to their forecasts, the Polish ecommerce will grow to €25 billion by 2020.

The Polish online consumer spends about 550 euros a year on average, and there are 15,000 active online shops in the country. “Interestingly, only 100 of them reach 1 or more per cent of the Polish internet users.”

Allegro is the Polish ecommerce leader
Gemius and e-Commerce Polska say that the leader of the ecommerce industry in Poland is marketplace Allegro. They score very well in terms of statistics (57.6% reach and over 12.4 million real users) and declarations of Internet users: over 76% of respondents indicated this brand in a spontaneous awareness survey on ecommerce players.

Preferred payment methods
Gemius also wrote in the report about the most frequently used payment methods in Poland. Payment services rank first with 37%, followed by online transfer (28%), cash on delivery (21%) and credit card or e-card (7%). “Cash on delivery is particularly popular in older e-customers (over 50 years old), while the online transfer is the favorite of the youngest (below 24 years old), and online payment services are the preferred method for the 25–34 year olds. What draws attention is the relatively small popularity of credit cards as a means of payment for online shopping – this form was defined as the one most frequently used by 7% of respondents.”

Based on data from E-commerce Europe it seems that the Polish online consumers spends on average about 550 euros a year. Internet users spend most on household appliances and audio & video equipment. Other popular products are furniture and interior decoration, and shoes and clothes. In the last category, Polish Internet users spend on average about 22 euros a month.

Online department stores
The most popular category of online stores are the department stores. In October 2014 they were visited by nearly half (48.8%) of all Internet users who went to online shops. Big department stores in Poland are LeroyMerlin, Tesco, Bdsklep, Frisco, Alma and Piotr i Paweł. Among the five department stores most frequently visited by the Polish internet users are LeroyMerlin, Alibaba, AliExpress, Tchibo and Amazon.

• Most visited online clothing store: Zalando.pl
• Most visited online electronics store: Euro.com.pl
• Most visited online book store: Empik.com
• Most visited online pharmacy: Doz.pl
• Most visited online perfumes and cosmetics store: Douglas.pl
• Most visited store with children’s products: Smyk.com