This post gives you a step-by-step to selling on the dominant Polish marketplace.
In a recent post we introduced you to Allegro, Poland’s leading marketplace. Allegro is large, very large. There were 164 million ‘offers’ in June 2020, for example. 20 million buyers visit Allegro every month, and 90% of them ‘regularly shop’ there, according to the marketplace. 86% of Internet users in Poland say it’s their favourite shopping destination, with 1.5 billion searches per month across 14 categories, and 70% of all traffic coming from mobile.
So, if you’re already convinced, how do you start selling on Allegro? At a high level, these are the 5 steps:
Let’s go into this in a little more detail. The letting us know bit is straightforward. Creating your account is done here, and then you’ll need to accept the Allegro terms and conditions. Next you need to send in the required documents: your proof of identity, your company registration details and your VAT number. If you’re in the European Economic Area, then you need to send a verification transfer of 1 Euro/US Dollar or Polish Zloty. If you’re a UK seller, then it’s a slightly different process to get set up (essentially you can send a transfer of £1 or a bank statement).
Product listings are organised on an offer-based system, rather like eBay. You should be prepared, however, for the fact that Allegro is transitioning to a catalogue-based system, rather like Amazon, during 2021 and beyond. Where your listing appears is a function of the quality of the offer itself, your quality as a seller, and any promotions or advertising accompanying the offer. A good title should be in Polish with a maximum of 50 characters that don’t abuse keywords. A good description should also be in Polish, only describe the item itself, look good (different layouts are available) and have good photos.
When it comes to photos, thumbnails need to be on a white background, should only feature the item (but can show people modelling the clothes or accessories) and can’t contain additional text or elements. Gallery pictures don’t have to be on a white background and can show those additional elements, such as packaging, logos, colours, patterns, certifications and so on.
On the order management side, it’s important to note that Allegro doesn’t have its own logistics offering – although it has plans to develop one in the not too distant future. Instead it maintains a Service Provider Network of 3PL partners, among other types of partners. The link for the SPN network is towards the bottom of this post. You can perform all the major aspects of order management for Allegro along with your other marketplace and website orders within the Volo system.
On the finance side, payment is in PLN, or Zlotys, and differs slightly depending on whether you’re based in the UK or the EEA. For UK sellers, payments go directly into your bank account on the 1st and 14th of each month. There are no subscription fees, nor listing fees in most categories, which is nice. You pay a commission when you successfully sell an item, and you can also invest in some enhanced visibility options.
These options are varied. There are offer promotion tools like feature, highlight or bold to attract buyers’ attention. There’s the Super Sellers badge, which promises premium merchants priority support and more highly ranked listings. There’s a Bonus Coins system which Allegro buyers can collect to use as discount on their next purchases. The Deal Zone is reserved for the most attractive offers on the platform, and you can also invest in a store subscription to help attract more buyers and boost your sales.
Finally, there’s advertising. Ads are picked and shown contextually on both the web and mobile versions of the platform, allowing buyers to click on sponsored offers. You can set up your daily budgets and monitor your performance in real time. You only pay when a potential buyer clicks. For those looking to keep it simple, there’s the Ads Express version of the full tool in ‘MyAllegro’ where you can set your daily budget and easily start and stop campaigns.
Allegro provides a range of supports to sellers, which is well worth consulting to build your knowledge:
To add Allegro to the online places where you sell, and to streamline and control your multichannel efforts for maximum productivity, send us a note here.
