The dynamic growth of e-commerce boosts demand for industrial and warehouse space in Poland. The country’s investment attractiveness additionally contributes to the market performance prompting the existing firms to expand and enticing new foreign players. Jakub Kurek, Advisor, Industrial & Warehouse Department, Cresa Poland, explains why the Polish industrial market is attractive to e-commerce.
Poland’s key assets attracting e-commerce investors
E-commerce operators are attracted to Poland by a combination of factors, including low labour costs, flexible labour regulations, major improvements to the country’s road infrastructure, convenient geographic location and reasonable leasing costs. All this is complemented by rising consumer spending and the growing popularity of the online sales channel.
Poland offers a strong growth potential for e-commerce businesses, including availability of workforce demanding lower salaries than in France or Belgium, yet being equally-skilled. Online sales rose in Poland from approximately EUR 6bn in 2016 to approximately EUR 8bn in 2017.
Recent developments on the Polish e-commerce market
Logistics operators who have so far cooperated with brick-and-mortar retailers are expanding offers to be able to attract new customers. Developers are also becoming increasingly aware of special e-commerce requirements, tailoring existing and new schemes to individual client needs, focusing on technologies, automation and robotisation to improve efficiency and optimize warehousing processes. In addition, large cities are seeing increased demand for urban logistics space due to expectations of shorter times of last mile deliveries.
To ensure comprehensive supply chain management, logistics operators need to set up specialized warehousing systems and to have high-tech and IT solutions in place which have been truly revolutionized in recent years. Polish businesses no longer issue inventory documents on paper and customers are automatically informed of estimated times of deliveries or current parcel location.
This transformation progressed so quickly that there are still few specialised logistics operators targeting solely e-commerce, excluding retailers with a physical presence. Consequently, retail giants entering the Polish markets such as Amazon or Zalando are relying on their own resources, but this is rapidly changing.
Outlook for e-commerce investments in Poland
E-commerce will continue to expand exponentially in Poland. Despite the rapid growth in recent years, its requirements have not been fully satisfied. Going forward, we expect new warehouse and distribution facilities to be developed across the country in the next three to five years, particularly in Warsaw’s suburbs, and central and western Poland. Small and medium-sized enterprises which have so far relied on schemes serving offline retailers will also invest in new developments.
Conservative forecasts indicate that e-commerce will grow at 20-30% and online sales are likely to double any time soon. This view is shared by logistics operators who are rapidly expanding their offers, but shortening delivery times will remain their biggest challenge.
The market will specialise further. Logistics operators will probably offer additional services, including packing and unloading assistance by their own staff.
Technological advancements will, however, benefit e-commerce. As a result of growing warehousing automation, online retail will increase its share of total retail sales.
According to latest statistics, online retail accounted for 4.3% of total retail sales in Poland in 2017 compared to 14% in Germany and 17% in the UK. This shows the huge and unlocked growth potential of e-commerce in Poland.
