Poland’s ecommerce market was historically behind average in Europe, hampered by low rates of Internet and ecommerce penetration. Yet impressive growth rates and strong mobile penetration has given flight to the market. Poland is now one of the stronger ecommerce markets in Central Europe, coming in fourth place in terms of ecommerce turnover. • Total Population - 38.1 million • Age Breakdown - Over 70% of the population in Poland are under 54. • Religion - Poland is mostly a Catholic country, with 87.1%. • Urban Population - 61% • Internet Penetration - 25 million people - 65% penetration • Mobile Penetration - 150% • Tablet Penetration - 17% • Smartphone Penetration - 44% • Online Shoppers - 26.2 million • Ecommerce Sales - Online retail sales grew 21% in 2013 to EUR 6.2 billion (PLN 23.2 billion). - Poland comes in fourth place in Central Europe in terms of ecommerce turnover, after Germany, Austria and Switzerland. • Ecommerce Penetration - 68.7% • Ecommerce CAGR (2012 – 2013) - 21% • Mobile Commerce - EUR 118 million (PLN 497 million) in 2013. Cross-border Ecommerce Opportunities • In Poland, the top three most common cross-border categories are, clothing and footwear, home furnishings and car accessories. • Projections for 2015 estimate that Polish ecommerce market will reach EUR 18.2 billion (PLN 77 billion), accounting for 4.9% of the GDP. • Polish online consumers are most likely to shop cross-border from the US (32.2%) and Germany (32.1%). • Polish consumers are mostly driven to shop overseas due to a lack of product selection domestically; almost 78% of consumers cite this as a reason for shopping cross-border. Lower price is also a driving factor for almost 50% of consumers.
Language as a Key Driver • Polish is the official language of Poland, spoken by 97% of the 38 million citizens. • There are over 500,000 people in England and Wales and almost 667,500 in the US who consider Polish to be their main language. • Poland has one of the highest proportion of retailers in Europe who only sell in their local language (72%). • Polish is spoken by approximately 43 million people worldwide in over 50 territories including Poland, Ukraine, the US, Belarus, Lithuania, Germany, Canada, the UK, Israel, Russia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Australia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Brazil, Argentina, Austria and Hungary.