Infographic: Online fashion industry in Poland

Poland may be the fastest-growing ecommerce market in the European Union, it still has a very low conversion rate. And among those internet users who actually do drop items in their virtual shopping cart, a strong majority of 67 percent leave the store without ever completing the transaction.

This is shown in the first comparative analysis of the Polish online fashion business conducted by Gemius. It also found out that the average Pole who’s shopping for clothes, shoes and accessories spends 253.81 Polish zloty (60.39 euros) on one online transaction, while the average price of a product on offer is about 35 euros.

High rate of cart abandonment in Poland
One in every three online Polish users who put at least one fashion product in their virtual shopping cart completes the transaction, the other 67 percent leaves the store without buying something. According to Mateusz Gordon, ecommerce expert at Gemius, the high rate of cart abandonment draws attention. “This may be indicative of the online user’s insecurity about his right to return the goods. Only some websites communicate the consumer rights in this respect clearly, and even less frequent is the practice of prolonging the statutory return deadline”, he says. “Another reason could be the delivery costs, which often take the buyer at surprise when they take to finalize the purchase, or perhaps the limited trust that a shop evokes due to lack of opinions, certificates or scarce payment options provided on the website.”

Low bounce rate
On average the Polish visitor of an online fashion store spends about seven minutes on the site, (which Gemius by the way thinks is low.) An average visit comprises seven page views, while the bounce rate is 39 percent. More of these stats you can find below in the infographic the business consulting company made.

Gordon thinks that the low bounce rate means that the large and widely recognized brands dominate the Polish ecommerce market. “This is the stores users enter directly after typing the company’s name in the search engine. Most of the online shop visitors are returning clients. Moreover, the low bounce rate may suggest how effective the retargeting activities were (i.e. recurrent messages displayed to users who have visited an e-store but abandoned their cart or did not finalize the purchase otherwise). Well-personalized websites of the biggest players, characterized by good navigational qualities, are successful in keeping the user on the site for longer periods.”

What may be more of a concern, is the fact that on average the customers of online fashion stores in Poland buy only two items at a visit. According to Gordon this is proof that the supplementary items recommendation system is ineffective. “In physical stores everyone knows that whatever a dummy wears sells best. Customers like to get a ready-to-use set. Hence the increasingly popular Western online stores trend where pictures of models wearing some of the fashion products on offer are presented.”