For several years, we have been observing a steady growth of the Polish e-commerce market. Currently, its value is approaching 1 billion PLN. The growing interest of Poles in online shopping is a result of increasing trust in this medium. If trust continues to grow, the profits of online stores will also increase. More and more people are choosing this purchasing channel, and at the same time, more and more companies are offering the possibility to purchase services and products online. The rapid development of the e-commerce market depends on three basic factors – the number of internet users, the length of time spent using the internet, and access to the tools offered by the internet. In Poland, we have over 9 million internet users, which accounts for 27 percent of Poland’s population.
The value of the e-commerce market in Poland amounted to 920 million PLN in 2004.
At the same time, observing the average dynamics of its annual revenues – amounting to about 170 percent – it is clear that it belongs to the fastest-growing and most promising markets in Poland. Unfortunately, when compared with Western European markets, we look pale. Difficult access (or a complete lack thereof) to the internet outside of large urban centers, the lack of clear legal regulations protecting consumers, and the failure to utilize the market’s potential and its focus on the male customer, while ignoring the female part of internet users, meant that for a long time we were not attractive to foreign investors.
The year 2005 brought, for the first time, information about growing interest in the Polish web in the West, which resulted in
the entry into the market of, among others, the auction platform eBay.
Who is the Polish customer?
E-customers are primarily men. They account for over 70 percent of all online shoppers. In the group of internet users under 24 years of age, those buying at online auctions prevail, while 30-40-year-olds are more likely to use online stores. This results from shifting the desire to achieve the benefits of cheaper purchases and the associated savings (auctions) to the certainty and security of the completed transaction (online store). Especially since the amounts spent in e-stores are incomparably higher than those at auctions.
The article comes from the magazine “e-Fakty” 6/2005.