Report: Allegro is Poland’s economic flywheel, generating 1% of the country’s GDP

24.07.2024

25 years since its launch, Allegro is the most effective sales platform in Poland, connecting thousands of merchants with millions of buyers. Today, it is the flywheel of the Polish economy, generating about 1% of its gross value added (GVA) as well as Poland’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)¹.
Around 1.15 billion items were sold via Allegro in Poland last year. Every third Pole and every second Polish company actively buys on the platform.
Merchants generated revenues worth almost PLN 55 billion on Allegro in 2023 alone, and in the six years since its launch, Allegro Smart! helped consumers save almost PLN 9 billion on delivery costs.
Allegro helps generate nearly 1% of Poland’s economy total workforce², and the value of wages generated in the country thanks to Allegro reached around PLN 8 billion last year³.

These are the main conclusions of the Economic Impact Report that KPMG has prepared for Allegro. This is the only report of its kind showing the scale of Allegro's positive impact on the Polish economy in 2023, after nearly 25 years of driving the online sales market by what is now the most popular marketplace in this part of Europe.

Allegro has been boosting the Polish e-commerce market since 1999, around the sector’s very beginning. As the platform grew, online sales boomed, which in turn drove the likes of the logistics, payments or marketing industries. Today, more than one in three Poles are active Allegro buyers, as is every other Polish company. Allegro itself is not only one of the strongest Polish brands, but has also grown to become one of the largest players in European e-commerce⁴. The first auction on Allegro offered a USB camera. A quarter of a century later, there are half a billion offers on the platform which is now extending its positive economic impact to other countries in the region.

In 2023 alone, buyers bought around 1.15 billion items on the Polish platform, and this is just one of the indicators that illustrate the scale of Allegro's operations illustrated in the Report. The platform's impact on the Polish economy goes far beyond the group itself and takes into account the activity generated via Allegro by almost 150,000 merchants on the platform, or the development of its logistics and courier partners. At the end of 2023, Allegro's overall impact on the Polish economy was estimated at over PLN 26 billion in gross value added (GVA), or about 1% of the total GVA generated in Poland and nearly 1% of the country’s total GDP. What does this translate to? This amount would finance the education of all primary school children in Poland. The scale of Allegro's operations gives employment to around 140,000 employees across the country - in and outside the company - and helps generate nearly PLN 8 billion in wages and salaries. For a similar value, the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) has commissioned 216 kilometers of road construction in 2023.

Allegro has been the engine of growth for Polish e-commerce since its founding twenty-five years ago. Today, almost one percent of Poland’s GDP is generated on its platform. We keep working to make shopping and selling easy. Hundreds of millions of products, fabulous prices (usually the most competitive in the market) and convenient delivery encourage customers to keep coming back – and those many customers attract more and more merchants to list their products with us. We also educate, support charities and set trends in corporate responsibility. The loyalty of customers and merchants has lead the Impact Report to name us the most popular platform in Poland. We are very proud of that achievement and step-by-step we are expanding our model to other countries in the region.”

Roy Perticucci, Allegro CEO

At the end of last year, Allegro had nearly 20 million active buyers in the region, 14.6 million of them in its home Polish market. Such a base, together with the ever-expanding logistical services available on Allegro, is quite a treat for merchants, who generated revenues of more than PLN 54.7 billion on Allegro in 2023 alone. Programmes and services created by Allegro, such as Allegro Smart!, Allegro Pay, or Best Price Guarantee are already well established among Polish consumers, who, thanks to Smart! alone, have already saved a total of more than PLN 8.6 billion on delivery costs! At the same time, the platform continues to expand its logistics capabilities, supporting the growth of the industry and expanding its own One Box parcel machines, courier services or One Fulfillment services. As a result, according to the report, around 9 out of 10 orders are fulfilled within one to two days, and almost 45% of shipments reach buyers already the second day.

The positive impact of Allegro on the Polish economy should be considered much more broadly than just employment, salaries paid or the generated added value. Allegro is a unique entity on an international scale – a marketplace platform created in Europe and propelling its entire e-commerce market. The economic benefits related to the functioning of the platform on the Polish market described in the report show how important a role Allegro plays in the domestic economy and what is the potential of this model, which the platform is currently expanding to other countries in the region. The company's key operations are located in Poland, but Allegro is already the largest e-commerce team in this part of Europe. In addition, the development of Allegro beyond Poland's borders stimulates the international expansion of local entrepreneurs.”

Andrzej Musiał, Director of Digital Transformation, KPMG in Poland

The entire report is available under this link.

¹ Allegro's total impact estimated at three levels: the activities of Allegro Group companies in Poland, the activities of merchants made possible by sales on the platform, and the activities of suppliers in connection with orders that are the customer's costs.

² Source: GUS date about the employment in the national economy in Poland in 2023. These data comprise three levels: operations of entities forming Allegro Polish Operations, operations of merchants made possible by sales on the platform, and operations of delivery services providers related to orders which were the expense of the buyer.

³ Estimation of remuneration generated as part of Allegro's impact: the activities of Allegro Group companies in Poland, the activities of merchants made possible by sales on the platform, and the activities of suppliers in connection with orders that are the customer's costs.

⁴ Source: SimilarWeb.