yStats.com, Germany-based secondary research firm specialized in E-Commerce and online payment market intelligence, has released a new report titled “Poland B2C E-Commerce Market 2017”. The report reveals that Poland is among the fastest growing E-Commerce markets in Europe, with strong double-digit growth recorded in 2016. Still more growth is expected by 2020, supported by the affinity of younger consumers to shop online and by the rise of mobile commerce.
The sixth largest country in the EU in terms of population, Poland is showing sturdy growth rates in B2C E-Commerce sales. Although the country lags behind the more advanced European economies in terms of Internet and online shopper penetration rates, its online retail sales growth rate in 2016 was significantly higher than the regions’ average, according to market data cited in yStats.com’s report. Much of this growth is attributed to consumers in the age group 25-34, of whom more than two-thirds make purchases online, more than 25 percentage points above the average for the whole population.
The rise of mobile commerce is another growth driver for Poland’s B2C E-Commerce. The share of Internet users with multiple devices who use smartphones for shopping-related activities nearly doubled between 2015 and 2016. Cross-border online shopping is a less pronounced, but also an important trend. A small double-digit share of online shoppers in Poland made purchases from foreign online sellers, such as eBay, AliExpress, and Amazon.
Allegro Group is the largest player on the Polish B2C E-Commerce market. The data cited in yStats.com’s report reveals that Allegro ranked first both in market share and in website visits. More than two-thirds of Internet users in Poland associated Allegro with online shopping. South Africa-based Naspers sold its stake in Allegro in early 2017 for more than double the price it paid for the acquisition in 2008, as the result of the company’s robust growth in the past years.
