The long-anticipated move is expected to give a further boost to Poland’s growing e-commerce market, the Reuters news agency reported.
But the plan could upset Poland’s dominant e-commerce player, Allegro, which enjoyed a buoyant stock market debut in October and whose shares slipped over 7 percent after Amazon made the announcement on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, Polish parcel storage firm InPost, whose lockers are widely used by both buyers and sellers on Allegro’s site, hit the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange in the Netherlands on Wednesday.
Online shopping has thrived in Poland during the coronavirus pandemic, with parcel lockers commonly used instead of home delivery, Reuters reported.
Amazon began operating in Poland in 2014 and now has nine logistics centres in the country, according to Reuters, but customers have been diverted to order via a Polish-language Germany-based website, adding to costs.
The news agency quoted Alex Ootes, vice president for EU Expansion at Amazon, as saying that the “next stage is the introduction of a full retail offer for consumers in Poland and it is now time to take this step.”
Before the pandemic, Amazon employed more than 16,000 in Poland, according to a report by state news agency PAP.
In November 2019, the company opened a 60,000-square-metre logistics centre in the village of Okmiany in the country's southwest, with plans to ultimately take on more than 1,000 workers, PAP reported at the time.
(gs/pk)
Source: Reuters, PAP
Click on the ‘Play' button above to hear a previous interview in which Danuta Isler discussed Amazon’s Polish expansion plans with its spokeswoman for Central and Eastern Europe, Marzena Więckowska.