E-commerce still rocketing up

Back in 2000, Poland had just a few hundred thousand square metres of modern warehouse space and e-commerce was only budding with Polish złoty retail sales in the tens of millions. At that time, nobody, except for a small number of people, wondered whether it was worth devoting more time or attention to the growth of e-tailing, or allocating dedicated warehouse space and logistics operations to it. In 2000, Poland’s internet users, who numbered around 3 mln, generally placed online orders via email and businessmen saw e-commerce as an addition that didn’t generate much turnover in proprotion to the rest of their income.

Today, Poland has more than 16 mln sqm of modern warehouse space and another two mln in the pipeline. The Polish e-commerce market is growing at an annual rate of over 18 pct, the fastest in Europe and it is worth a staggering PLN 50 bln and still growing. As many as 28 mln Polish people shop online via websites, smartphone apps and social media. Poland already has more than 30,000 online stores with 21 being opened every day, which represents a y-o-y growth of over 6 pct. In the last twelve months alone, 1,800 retailers entered the e-commerce market in Poland. With online shopping now so popular, one of the leading courier firms will deliver up to a million parcels on a peak day. Poland has also become an international logistics hub, where orders and returns are processed for top European online platforms and stores.

Given Poland's attractively low labour costs compared to the European average and the relatively small share of e-commerce in the country's total retail sales, the sector will undoubtedly continue to grow, which will increasingly impact the demand for new warehouses, their technical specifications, their equipment and their level of automation