Polish online trade grows faster than Europe, but the gap remains huge

Poland's online retail market is experiencing dynamic growth, yet it continues to trail behind European and North American counterparts. In 2025, e-commerce accounted for 9.1% of total retail sales in Poland, a slight increase from the previous year, according to GUS data. This figure starkly contrasts with Europe's average of 17.3% in the same year, which is projected to reach 18.2% by 2026. The gap widens further when compared to North America, where online sales represented 28.5% of retail in 2025, expected to exceed 30% in 2026.

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The difference clearly shows the potential of the Polish market. Even if the growth rate is no longer as dramatic as in the first years after the pandemic, there is still significant room to increase the share of online sales.

Despite the disparity, experts see significant potential for further expansion in the Polish market. Arkadiusz Filipowski of logistics firm Fulfilio notes that even without the pandemic-fueled surge, there is ample room for online sales to increase. He highlights categories like large-sized products, car parts, and home furnishings, which were previously considered more challenging for e-commerce, as key areas for future growth, especially with efficient return services.

The value of online sales in Poland is forecast to grow by an average of 9% annually between 2025 and 2029, placing it eighth in Europe for e-commerce market growth. Krzysztof Surowiecki from Ambiscale attributes Poland's relatively young e-commerce market to a shorter history of online shopping habits compared to Western Europe or the U.S. He points out that fundamental barriers, such as parcel lockers, instant payments, and the popular BLIK system, have become commonplace. However, he also identifies remaining challenges, including uneven adoption across different customer groups and lingering technological, analytical, and organizational gaps among businesses.

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The Polish e-commerce market is still relatively young compared to Western European countries or the USA, where the habit of buying online was built much longer. In Poland, we have largely overcome many basic barriers: parcel lockers, fast payments, or the popular BLIK have become part of everyday life.

Polish e-commerce platforms are demonstrating their competitive strength. A report by Waredock positions Allegro as the third-largest marketplace platform in Europe, behind global leaders Amazon and eBay. While Amazon leads in terms of country presence and local market dominance in nations like Germany and Spain, and eBay is strong in the UK and Germany, Allegro is making significant strides. Another analysis by Lengow ranks Allegro fourth in Europe, just behind Zalando. Experts also identify the online grocery sector as a major untapped opportunity within Poland, indicating further avenues for market development.

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The problem is that not all customer groups use e-commerce equally freely yet, and on the company side, there are still technological, analytical, and organizational shortcomings.