Allegro changes affect sales

Almost half of online stores sell on Allegro in addition to their own channels. However, due to changes in this portal's policies, sellers are selling less. According to the platform's data, Shoper, lower revenues are particularly affecting the children's, fashion, accessories and sports industries.

For online retailers, sites such as Allegro, DaWanda and Mustache provide an additional point of contact with the brand. They conduct simultaneous sales in their own online store and on an external portal to reach customers through different channels. The platform's latest annual report Shoper, from January this year, showed that almost half (49 percent) of the stores using the software also sell on Allegro.

Have the changes made by Allegro in recent months to the rules for publishing and promoting listings on the portal had a real impact on store sales? A compilation of data on stores from the Shoper platform selling on the auction portal shows that some stores on Allegro are clearly selling less and less.

Children, clothing, accessories and sports sell less

The share of sales on Allegro among total store sales fell by a few percent, but large differences can be seen in several industries in particular. The largest declines on Allegro this year compared to 2016 were suffered by retailers in the children's and apparel industries - the share from the auction portal in their revenues fell by 21 percent. Sales on Allegro also accounted for a smaller share of total sales in stores in the gifts and accessories (- 16 percent) and sports and travel (- 13 percent) departments.

It's worth noting that until now, these were stores that typically sold more on the auction portal than through their own e-shop. They now derive more revenue from their own channel than from Allegro.

At the same time, the same four industries saw the largest decline in Allegro revenue. Stores in the sports and travel industry saw the largest drop in revenue, down 31 percent. Stores offering children's items lost 27 percent, and those selling fashion and gifts and accessories each lost 23 percent in revenue.

- It is difficult to make a clear assessment of why Allegro revenues have declined. The reason could be the changes introduced successively in this service, resulting in an increase in the cost of sales. The second reason could be the entry of large brands on Allegro, which are harder for smaller players to compete with. It is also worth noting that Allegro began its debut in retail sales precisely with the children's category, which after several months brought results. For some time now we have also noticed increased interest in investing in our own sales channel and supporting it with advertising activities, including AdWords campaigns, which has a direct effect on increasing sales in the e-store," explains Jacek Zientkiewicz, Brand Manager of the platform Shoper.

Not everyone loses

Not all industries are reporting losses on Allegro this year. Computers and food are doing very well. Stores selling computers can enjoy as much as a 120 percent increase in revenue from transactions on the portal, and their share of revenue from Allegro increased by 8 percent. Food sellers' revenue on the portal increased by a third while Allegro's share of sales increased by 19 percent.

The data comes from stores using the platform Shoper, which sold on Allegro in June-July 2016 and 2017.