The results of the fifth Polish EY’s Future Consumer Index survey indicate that, as pandemic restrictions have lifted, Poles have been more willing to return to physical shops. While as in March 2021 43% of respondents declared that they visit them less often, by May 2022 this percentage had fallen to 20%.

At the same time, the number of consumers who choose the e-commerce channel is growing. In May 2022, 33% of Poles declared that they would order products online instead of buying them in physical shops. This is 9 % (up from 24%) more than in March 2021.

However, as many as 37% of respondents consider high delivery costs to be one of the most frustrating factors when shopping online, and 36% of them do not trust retailers operating exclusively online. Invariably, however, price will be the deciding factor, with as many as 61% of respondents saying that rising costs mean they can no longer afford everything and must look to save money.

“The lifting of pandemic-related restrictions has worked in two ways. For some consumers, it meant a quick return to old habits and shopping in physical shops. Others, however, continued their online shopping or returned to this model after a visit to the mall,” says Michał Płotnicki, Partner EY Poland, E-commerce Sector Leader.

The results of the EY study – Future Consumer Index show that it is the costly delivery of ordered products (37%), the lack of possibility to select a given item online (24%) and damage to the item during delivery (20%) that are considered as the most frustrating factors during shopping. At the same time, 36% of Poles believe that delivery availability has recently become one of the most important shopping criteria.

The fifth Polish EY survey – Future Consumer Index – prepared by EY Polska was conducted between 17-27 May 2022 on a group of 1,000 people aged 18-65.

Adrian Andrzejewski