Amazon has entered Poland’s e-commerce market with the launch of a local website. The firm had recently declared its intention to establish a service in Poland, and there were press rumours its platform could open on 7 March. But last night’s launch was not announced in advance.
Up till now, shoppers in Poland could use a Polish-language version of Amazon’s German website. The new Polish platform will not only more directly serve consumers in Poland, but is also expected to attract local sellers, who have already been able to begin registering.
The website contains more thorough product information in Polish than its translated German predecessor, as well as prices expressed in Polish zloty rather than euros. It also includes local payment options, including the BLIK mobile payment systems and Przelewy24.pl online payments aggregator.
However, for now Amazon Prime – a service allowing free overnight deliveries – has not been made available on the Polish website. The company has also launched a sell.amazon.pl website with webinars for potential sellers.
“It is true that for several years the Polish consumer has been able to buy relatively conveniently at Amazon.de, but the launch of the Polish version is a significant step towards attracting Polish e-sellers to the platform,” Robert Stolarczyk, head of the PromoTraffic digital agency, told Business Insider Polska.
In late January, the US online retail giant flagged its upcoming entry and allowed sellers who wish to operate on the service to register ahead of the launch.
The company said that its expanded Polish operations would “provide Polish customers with a new dimension of shopping” and expand the reach of local businesses to “to reach a larger number of customers, both in Poland and around the world”.
Amazon already has extensive infrastructure in Poland, including nine fulfilment centres (with a tenth set to open this year), as well as the Amazon Technology Development Center in Gdańsk and the Amazon Web Services branch in Warsaw. So far, however, these facilities have been used to serve markets outside Poland.
As of October, Amazon had 18,000 employees in the country, making it the largest US employer in Poland, according to the American Chamber of Commerce. In October, the company announced that it was looking to hire an additional 10,000 workers in Poland over the holiday season.
Amazon has, however, also faced criticism in Poland, in particular over pay and conditions for staff. Last year, workers at some of its facilities complained of inadequate measures to protect them from coronavirus infection.
The firm will face tough competition for Poland’s booming e-commerce market, which is valued at $19 billion, according to Bloomberg. In particular, it will face off against longstanding market leader Allegro, which last year raised around 2 billion euro in the Warsaw stock exchange’s largest ever initial public offering.
Both Amazon and Allegro have been cooperating with Polish parcel locker provider InPost. Ahead of its launch, Amazon signed a five-year agreement to use InPost’s delivery services – both couriers and lockers – in Poland.
Polish parcel locker firm InPost has secured a five-year deal to handle deliveries in Poland for Amazon, which last week announced that it would soon be entering the Polish market (as we reported here: https://t.co/kGSUTKvMjl) https://t.co/kz9jQIr2Gw
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 1, 2021
Main image credit: Amazon.pl/screenshot
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
