Polish e-tailing sees effervescent growth

According to the latest report by Mintel, a British research company, the value of retail e-commerce will grow by 300% in Poland, to top EUR 4 billion by 2010. In 2005, Poland was ranked eighth in Europe, with an annual turnover of EUR 1.1 billion, a growth of EUR 500 million on the previous year. Thanks to the anticipated growth in e-commerce Poland will overtake the Netherlands and Sweden, while the share of e-commerce in total retail sales will grow from 1% to over 4%. The main reasons for this growth will be growing access to broadband Internet, dropping popularity of traditional catalogue mail sales, and growing investments by commercial companies in development and promotion of e-commerce with home delivery. "The potential of e-commerce is enormous. For the time being its share in total retail trade is low and thus growth of a few hundred percent is still possible," said Piotr Wtulich, member of e-store Merlin.pl's management board. (Puls Biznesu, pp.1, 10) M.M.