Allegro is entering new countries. And it focuses on recycling packaging

Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia – new markets for Allegro

Poland is the fastest growing e-commerce market in Central and Eastern Europe and the second fastest growing in all of Europe. The Allegro Group, with nearly 15 million active buyers in Poland, has previously successfully launched the Allegro.sk platform in Slovakia and Allegro.cz in the Czech Republic. Now it plans to expand its operations to Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia, seeing great growth potential in these countries.

According to last year's CBRE report “E-commerce in the post-pandemic era”, the COVID-19 pandemic permanently changed Poles' shopping habits, contributing to an increase in e-commerce by 55%. This increase continued even after the lockdowns were lifted. Poland is responsible for over 46%. shopping throughout the region. In second place is the Czech Republic with a share of 17 percent, and in third place is Romania with 9 percent.

Marta Mikliszańska, director of public affairs and ESG at the Allegro Group, emphasizes that the e-commerce market in Poland is still growing. At the end of March, Allegro.pl had 14.8 million active buyers, and their number increased for the eighth quarter in a row. The value of gross goods sold (GMV) increased by 10% in the first quarter. y/y, reaching PLN 13.6 billion. The average GMV per active buyer increased by 5.8%. y/y, up to 3.8 thousand PLN per year.

– The e-commerce market in Poland is growing. We have already published our quarterly financial results, which are even better than we expected – said Marta, director of public affairs and ESG at the Allegro Group.

Sustainable development of the e-commerce market

The Allegro Group invests not only in expansion, but also in sustainable development and reduction of CO2 emissions. The company replaces plastic with recycled packaging (recently, in an extensive article, we wrote about why this is very important) and fillers, and promotes the collection of parcels from parcel machines, which is 33%. less emission than traditional courier delivery. Research by the Chamber of Electronic Commerce shows that 35 percent Polish e-commerce customers take into account aspects related to sustainable development when choosing an e-store.

– Environmental issues are an increasingly important topic for customers. From an e-commerce perspective, these are primarily two issues: transport and packaging, and for entities such as Allegro, also reducing their own emissions, i.e. decarbonizing their own operations. This is what we focus on. First of all, we replace plastic with recycled packaging and fillers – not only in our own operations, we also offer a very large selection of such cardboard boxes for shipping to our sellers, which they are happy to use – says Mikliszańska.

Promising forecasts

According to PwC forecasts, by 2027 the value of the e-commerce market in Poland is expected to increase to PLN 187 billion, and the share of online commerce in total retail sales is expected to be 17%. More than half of this growth will come from the fashion, electronics and health and beauty categories. Analysts also predict an increase in the share of players such as Allegro and Amazon, from 45 percent. to over 55 percent

The Allegro Group plans further expansion, anticipating investments of PLN 140-150 million in Poland and PLN 25-35 million abroad in the second quarter of this year. New markets such as Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia will allow you to double your potential customer base. The company also plans to further improve purchasing processes in Poland, while simultaneously developing international operations.