H2 2020: The State of E-Commerce in Poland
(Click here to view the HD version of the infographic)
After examining the state of e-commerce in several countries across Europe, such as Sweden, the Netherlands, and Belgium, this week we are taking a closer look at another European country, Poland.
The country’s retail industry was hit the hardest during the first wave of the pandemic with a 22.9% dip in retail sales in April 2020. While physical retail stores took the hit, the pandemic had accelerated e-commerce growth with the Polish e-commerce market seeing a 33% growth in 2020. In 2020, Poland ranked as the 18th largest e-commerce market, reaching US$13 billion in revenue.
Despite the decline in the number of cases within the country from the first wave, Poland however reached a new record in daily cases towards the end of the year. So how has the country’s state of e-commerce changed in the second half of 2020?
Parcels in Poland had an average transit time of 1.3 days
Along with the e-commerce boom, the growth of the parcel delivery market in Poland also accelerated. In 2020 alone, Poland delivered an astounding 814 million parcels.
With the increase in parcel volumes throughout the world, other European countries seemed to face capacity issues and had longer transit times. For instance, 1.8 days in France, 2.1 days in Sweden, and 2.2 days in the UK. However, the impact on Poland’s logistics performance seemed to be minimal, with a relatively shorter average transit time of 1.3 days before the first delivery attempt.
96% success rate at first delivery attempt
The second wave of pandemic hit Poland hard in late October last year. The Polish government had to tighten the lockdown measures in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The restrictions included the closure of non-essential retail stores, pushing Polish shoppers to make online purchases instead of purchasing directly in-store. As the restrictions kept everyone at home, this likely led to a higher delivery success rate.
67% of parcels delivered to Collection Points were picked up within 24 hours
In our previous study, we’ve seen how Poland’s parcel locker network is growing rapidly. The country was even named as Europe’s fastest-growing parcel locker market, amounting to 28,000 unique pick-up-and-drop-off (PUDO) points in 2020.
With such a high amount of collection points around the country, Polish consumers will have no trouble collecting their parcels swiftly at a distance close to their homes.
“Thanks to PUDO and locker delivery options, Poland is achieving very good first-time delivery rates. This benefits e-tailers who have happier customers and fewer returns as well as carriers, who save time and money.”
– Marek Różycki, Managing Partner, Last Mile Experts
How will the state of e-commerce for Poland change in 2021?
It is exciting to see how the e-commerce market in Poland will evolve, especially with Alibaba launching its very own parcel lockers and Amazon finally launching its Polish dedicated platform. To find out how the Polish e-commerce logistics market has grown since 2020, stay tuned for our 2021 edition!
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