E-commerce in Poland: A true winner of the Sunday trading ban?

Almost exactly 12 months ago, I was writing a series of articles for this publication about e-commerce and legislative changes in Poland. At that time, retailers were nervously awaiting the announcement of the dreaded Sunday trading restrictions and customers, including myself, were wondering how they would be affected.

The new law finally came into force on March 1, 2018, and as a result, stores must now close on Sundays apart from the first and last Sunday of each month (a few businesses, such as gas stations, pharmacies and shops run directly by their owners, are excepted). As of January 1, 2019, the rules tighten even more, and stores may open one Sunday per month; in 2020, Sunday trading will be banned completely, with only seven Sundays per year (around key holidays) being unaffected.

Although it may be too early to reach any definitive conclusions about the impact of the ban, a couple of trends have already been detected.

Evolving customer behavior

First, customers are pragmatic. If they remember that theshops will be closed on the coming Sunday, they adjustplans accordingly, with Saturday (mainly in big cities)becoming the main day for shopping activity; just try to findan empty parking space in a shopping center on a Saturday.By virtue of modified consumer behavior, shopping centershave compensated for the losses in revenue caused by thenew legislation to some extent.

Nevertheless, as some recent reports show, they havestill suffered a single-digit decline in the number of visitorscompared to this time last year.

E-Commerce on the rise

The Sunday trading ban has further stimulated the growthof e-commerce in Poland, but it has not revolutionized it assome were predicting. Retailers, especially those from thefashion sector, have come to realize that online sales canbe the perfect solution to the Sunday trading ban, sinceonline shopping is not restricted. Retailers have adoptednew marketing strategies and created special advertisingcampaigns and promotional offers directed to onlineshoppers. For example, customers are often offered freedelivery or price reductions when shopping online onSundays. These mechanisms are helping retailers to attractmore customers.

Whats next?

A year ago, I was one of those people who was wonderinghow the Sunday trading ban would affect my life. Eight monthsafter the law came into effect, many Polish consumers,including myself, do not see the law as significantly limitingtheir shopping options. With the trading ban set to becomestricter over the next couple of years, the inconveniencemay become more burdensome for the customers, leadingthe e-commerce sector to expand and evolve even moredynamically as a natural product of filling the gap.