Another European e-commerce platform is expanding!

2024 is almost coming to an end, and many sellers call it "a difficult year for cross-border e-commerce." Some sellers also said that various problems have emerged on the Amazon platform since this year, and they bluntly said that "it is becoming more and more difficult to do business on Amazon."

As competition and operating costs increase, many sellers have begun to learn to multi-pronged, and while doing business on Amazon, they have also started to invest in emerging platforms such as TikTok and Temu. Some sellers have also focused their attention on niche foreign e-commerce platforms, hoping to improve their performance through multiple channels.

In addition to the British e-commerce platforms OnBuy and Fruugo mentioned in the article a few days ago , there are many other platforms worth exploring for sellers, such as Germany's OTTO, Russia's Ozon, France's Cdiscount, and North America's Wish. In addition, the editor noticed that the Polish e-commerce platform Allegro also has huge development potential .

With 20 million monthly visits , Allegro is well-known

Everyone in the industry knows that compared with Western Europe, the e-commerce market in Central and Eastern Europe is larger and contains more business opportunities. Data shows that the e-commerce market in Central and Eastern Europe reached 104 billion euros in 2023, an increase of 29% over the previous year. It is expected that by 2024, this figure will reach 122 billion euros, a growth rate of 18%.

Poland can be said to be one of the fastest-growing countries in the golden land of Central and Eastern Europe, and in this popular market, the performance of the Allegro platform is remarkable.

Public information shows that Allegro was founded by Poles in 1999 and listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) in 2020, becoming the largest IPO in Poland and also the largest IPO in Europe that year. At present, it has developed into the largest and most popular local e-commerce platform, also known as the "Polish National Platform" and "Polish eBay", and its status is almost the same as that of China's JD.com and Tmall.

When you enter the official website, you can see that after years of development, the types of goods on the Allegro platform have become more and more diversified, covering electronic products, maternal and child products, fashion apparel, beauty, medical health, sports, automobiles, works of art and other fields.

It has also launched branches in various European countries. The one-click login function can cover 24 surrounding EU countries (including Central and Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, Western Europe and Southwestern Europe), reaching more than 70 million potential consumers. According to statistics, Allegro occupies more than 60% of the market share in the entire Polish e-commerce market, with a recognition rate of up to 98% and a consumer repurchase rate of nearly 90%. It has long occupied the position of the third largest e-commerce platform in Europe.

According to the recent financial report data, Allegro has delivered another excellent report card in the second quarter of this year.

Data shows that Allegro's total merchandise volume (GMV) increased by 11.1% year-on-year, and adjusted EBITDA increased by 31.5% year-on-year, both higher than expected. In the Polish domestic market, Allegro's GMV exceeded 15 billion zlotys ( about 26.76 billion yuan ), an increase of 11.6% year-on-year; total revenue was 2.3 billion zlotys ( about 4.093 billion yuan ), an increase of 23.8% year-on-year.

According to forecasts, in the third quarter of this year, Allegro's GMV in the Polish market will increase by 10-11% year-on-year, and its revenue growth is expected to reach 16-18%.

In addition to Poland, Allegro is also making great strides in other online markets . In the second quarter, the total sales of goods reached 5.1 million pieces, with more than 2.5 million active buyers and the number of potential customers increased by 16 million.

Moreover, in June of this year , Allegro successfully made it onto SimilarWeb 's (traffic statistics website) global popular e-commerce shopping website ranking list .

All the data show that Allegro, as the most popular e-commerce platform in Poland, has huge development potential.

For domestic sellers, although there are many sellers on this platform, the proportion of Chinese sellers is only in the single digits. The competitive pressure is obviously much smaller than other platforms, and it is easier to get product exposure and increase sales. Overall, it is a new blue ocean platform for going overseas, and sellers may try many aspects in the future.

Allegro continues to expand into new markets

Although Allegro has been a great success in terms of consumer awareness, revenue, net profit, etc., it has never stopped its expansion.

Allegro pointed out that the platform, backed by the Central and Eastern European market with great growth potential, must not be satisfied with the status quo. In the future, it will actively promote international expansion and strive to occupy a place in the global e-commerce market.

Data shows that as early as 2021, Allegro acquired Mall Group and WE DO, which operate in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia, for a huge sum of 881 million euros. It is worth mentioning that this acquisition laid the foundation for its subsequent expansion, which can be said to be a step-by-step approach.

In the second half of 2023, Allegro launched the Czech site allegro.cz. According to data, it has more than 1.6 million active sellers and more than 10 million consumers. It has now become the most visited e-commerce shopping platform in the Czech Republic.

In March 2024, Allegro officially launched its third Central European market, Slovakia, with the website name allegro.sk. It is understood that before the launch of allegro.sk, Slovaks were already very familiar with the platform. A survey by Perfect Crowd showed that 42% of Slovaks surveyed knew Allegro, and 82% of them expressed their willingness to use the platform, and 79% hoped to shop on it.

In addition to the above two sites, Allegro also officially announced the launch of its business in Hungary in early October this year , further increasing its expansion efforts in Central Europe.

It is estimated that the Hungarian website allegro.hu is expected to bring 10 million new potential customers to Allegro. Its chief commercial officer Matthias Frechen also said that entering the Hungarian market will help it become the most popular shopping platform in Europe.

It is worth mentioning that Allegro has been paying special attention to various promotional activities while expanding. For example, it recently officially launched this year's Black Friday promotion week. It is reported that the promotion time of the Polish station is from November 4th to December 2nd; the promotion time of the Czech station and Slovakia station is from November 4th to December 8th, which lasts for more than a month.

To show its sincerity, Allegro not only offers various discounts, but also lowers the delivery threshold and even upgrades the lowest price guarantee function. Industry insiders predict that if nothing unexpected happens, the Allegro platform and sellers will surely make a lot of money in this Black Friday peak season promotion.

In fact, it is not just Allegro, but also many cross-border e-commerce platforms such as giants Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Fruugo, Ozon, Temu, etc., facing the coming of the peak season, are trying various "new tricks" to continuously seize the blue ocean market share. However, when the platforms are fighting for their lives, the sellers are suffering. Under this trend, many sellers have begun to deploy on multiple platforms to find a way out for their survival.

However, it must be said that discovering new platforms for multi-channel layout is certainly a good thing, but you must also consider the actual situation of your own products, economic conditions, supply chain, etc. At the same time, you must fully understand the basic situation of the platform and the conditions for entry. Do not blindly follow the trend, otherwise you may end up with nothing.