This year the Polish e-commerce market is growing by 18%. Online grocery sales can grow up to five times faster
The e-commerce market in Poland is growing at a rate of 18% annually and at the end of this year will reach the value of 47 billion PLN - according to the forecasts of the Integer.pl Group. The fastest growing category is online food sales. Expansion in this segment is already planned by Allegro, and InPost - with the project of refrigerated vending machines being developed for some time - wants to benefit from market growth. - In 10 years' time the physical and online food trade market will be in the 50:50 ratio. A huge boom awaits us - says Rafał Brzoska, the head of InPost.
- If the market continues to grow at its current pace, Italy will be overtaken in the next 3-4 years, making it the fourth largest market in the EU, just behind the UK, Germany and France. That would be a real sensation. Our market is growing much more dynamically than in Italy, it is characterised by greater fragmentation, with a large share of Polish entities, and Allegro is still strong - says Rafał Brzoska, President of the Management Board of Integer.pl Group, News Agency.
Poland is one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets in Europe. According to Gemius' data, last year 54 percent of Polish Internet users shopped online (compared to 50 percent in 2016). Poles - invariably for several years - most willingly buy clothes, accessories, shoes and accessories online. Equally popular are books, CDs, films and household appliances. The home & garden segment, i.e. home accessories and accessories, and even furniture, is growing rapidly.
- Until now, our Achilles heel was the so-called fresh segment, i.e. food products. Only a few shops offered them to their customers. However, there are data that show that this category will grow 4-5 times faster in the years to come than the whole e-commerce market. If this is the case, we have the chance to catch up with the European leaders over the next few years. In France, Great Britain or Germany, food accounts for over 10% of all ordered goods and is growing dynamically. I believe that in 10 years the market of physical food trade vs. online - it will be shaped in the proportion of 50:50 - says Rafał Brzoska.
The President of the Integer.pl Group notes that Allegro, which plans to expand on the online food sales market, will also contribute to the growth in this segment. Thus, the Polish e-commerce giant may follow in the footsteps of Amazon, who has already captured about one fifth of the market of food supplies ordered on the Internet in the USA.
The Gemius report shows that last year 22% of Polish consumers bought food products online, and 27% are planning to do so in the future. Similar data is also shown in this year's Mobile Institue report for Frisco.pl ("E-grocery in Poland - grocery shopping online"), which shows that 16% of consumers make regular grocery shopping online, indicating that the main advantage is saving time and money. The potential for growth of the online food trade is huge. It is estimated that the penetration of this category in Poland is currently about 0.7% of the FMCG market, and according to Euromonitor International data, the average rate of growth of e-grocery is 15-20% year on year.
- As an InPost we hope to participate in this growth with our fridges - announces Rafał Brzoska.
The main problem in the online food trade is to guarantee the freshness of the goods, which must be stored in appropriate conditions - both in the warehouse and during the delivery. InPost has been working on food storage parcel machines for some time now to solve this problem.
The President of the Integer.pl Group also emphasizes that the dynamic growth in the entire e-commerce market triggers enormous pressure on courier companies and stimulates the development of this market. On the other hand, the current situation on the labour market and the record low unemployment that has lasted for months are beginning to influence the price of services.
- It is very difficult to get couriers and fuel prices are rising. Most stores have realized in recent months that delivery costs are unfortunately going up, but on the other hand we have a huge quality leap - says Rafał Brzoska. - At the moment, every second Internet user who declares to be buying online decides to send to the Parcel Machine. They have become a real accelerator of customers' purchasing behaviour. We can say that we are a catalyst for changes on the Polish market.
According to Gemius' data, last year InPost parcel machines were the second most popular form of delivery of online purchases, after courier deliveries. This option is chosen by 22% of customers (an increase from 11% still in 2015). In addition, every second customer of Polish e-commerce (50%) decides to purchase, provided that there is an option to deliver the order to the parcel machine.
At the end of May, InPost had a network of 3,000 parcel machines in Poland (a total of 290,000 boxes). Since then, he has already put another 200 machines into operation within two weeks. Paczkomaty machines constantly increase their market share, and in peak periods (e.g. before Christmas) the use of the whole network reaches 100%.
- We are building a network because we believe that accessibility is crucial for the development of e-commerce. Until now, it has been limited to large and medium-sized cities. Today, we often build machines in large villages or very small towns, sometimes on the initiative of the inhabitants themselves, who send us an appeal to install a machine. Today we already have 3.2 thousand of them, and there will be even more of them - says the head of InPost.
The Group also boasts a dynamic growth in the courier services segment, which is growing at an average rate of 50% year on year, much faster than the entire market (8-12%). Thus, InPost is currently the fastest growing courier company on the Polish market and - according to Gemius' last year's data - the third most frequently chosen by customers (before the Polish Post Office, UPS or FedEx).