A real pleasure to participate in my first Face to Face trade event in over two years recently. Hosted by #Santander, in London’s Ludgate Hill offices, I had the pleasure to meet a range of Great British brands interested in doing business in Poland and the broader CEE region. Two great events heralding the imminent launch of the #SantanderNavigator international trade programme. The meetings were moderated under the excellent leadership of Magdalena Crosa and Sukhjeeven Nat and I was in great company with #Allegro, diligently represented by Shakhil Shah and Emilia Gregorczyk , and Ben Biffen from Exorigo-Upos Group. Adam Payne delivered a great presentation on #SantanderNavigator. It really struck me that, together we offer a superb, seamless route to doing great business in Poland and beyond in a region of well over 200m consumers. Here’s some background detail: 

Poland – #1 CEE Market; #6 EU economy; Gateway to Europe

With a population of 37.9 million people, Poland is the largest country in the CEE Region, the 6th largest economy in Europe, and an omnichannel retail gateway for Europe. Poland is one of the most dynamic and diverse retail markets in Europe, with a rich tapestry of multi-format traditional and modern retail networks. The country has a multi-city, regional economy with multiple EU brands represented across key categories.

Discount and value – but forget the high spenders at your peril

Consumers at large are passionate about value, and currently the fastest developing categories are convenience & discount networks, in smaller, regional cities and towns with under 100 000 inhabitants. However, there is a rapidly rising ‘mid to high spending’ consumer group which is vying with established EU markets in terms of spending power – a detailed purchase power segmentation analysis is highly recommended to understand market opportunity in detail.

Poland online – a boom in the making

Digital and online trade is booming with Polish e commerce growing at one of the fastest rates in Europe. More than 50% of consumers spend over 300pln per month and an estimated 10% averaging over 1000pln per month. However, compared with traditional retail, e commerce is underdeveloped, representing 5% of total retail sales pre-pandemic. This has grown to 8% during 2021. Around 70% of e commerce is transacted on marketplaces.

Exorigo Upos – poised to help retailers enter Poland & CEE

Whatever your business model – shops, eCommerce,  or Marketplace, it is well worth talking to #ExorigoUpos about how we can help you expand your business across the region. We’re working with many of the Region’s most successful retailers across a range of important categories – grocery, fashion, health and beauty and DIY.  We have a great ‘1 Stop Shop CEE’ service which is especially designed to help you get going fast whether you are looking for store or showroom openings, localizing your own e Commerce platform, integrating and localizing payments or needing help to list on Allegro, Central Europe’s #1 Marketplace.