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Bizarre. Poland isn’t a big market with Amazon, we have our own local monopoly in this sector called Allegro. edit: ok this is done by UOKiK, a consumer protec

Bizarre. Poland isn’t a big market with Amazon, we have our own local monopoly in this sector called Allegro. edit: ok this is done by UOKiK, a consumer protection agency. This agency has supposedly been doing a stellar job keeping an eye on everything from banking to e-commerce sector.

StefanBatory 3y ago
Polish Amazon is such in a weird spot. Compared to Allegro, it has close to no offers, and search engine. Just. Doesn't. Work.
- kolinko 3y ago
  +1. When in Poland I use Allegro all the time - way more reliable than Amazon.pl. Not as good as Amazon in the states though. My friends who moved back from the Bay Area still prefer to use Amazon, but they use Amazon.de instead - similar shipping times, and much better selection and reliability.
  - chihuahua 3y ago
    Not sure if this is still the case, but Amazon.de used to use fulfillment centers in Poland to deliver to Germany. So if you're in Poland and ordering from Amazon.de, your order could very well be delivered from Poland to Poland.
    - gambiting 3y ago
      In fact there were 3 massive Amazon fullfilment centres in Poland before Amazon.pl even launched lol. It's a weird(but very interesting) market with its own big players that neither Amazon nor ebay managed to compete against.
- ivanjermakov 3y ago
  Amazon's search in Poland is atrocious. I only get international offers where shipping costs are higher than good's price. What the hell?
- voytec 3y ago
  amazon.pl doesn't have English version. Auto-translated titles and descriptions are atrocious. amazon.de on the other hand has English version and stuff is sent from warehouses in Poland anyway.
dehrmann 3y ago
> stellar I'm not sure enough to know if that's sarcastic, but the circumstances make me wonder if this was to promote local competitors or score political points.
- scyzoryk_xyz 3y ago
  No no, I'm serious. I have friends in banking who had experiences coming under UOKiK scrutiny and they claim that it really has it's shit together. I have no doubt that there is dysfunction in the system, just not when it comes to regulation of this sector apparently.
- wao0uuno 3y ago
  UOKiK is pretty well known for doing a great job. I had some money returned from my ISP because of UOKiK. I saw big red banners on websites basically saying that they have to apologise for ripping off their customers because UOKiK is holding them by the balls. I had my refunds rejected but then approved immediately after mentioning UOKiK.
jakubadamw 3y ago
I am honestly baffled Amazon hasn't found a way to compete with Allegro. I am happy about it, but also baffled. Allegro's customer experience is just stellar, whereas Amazon's interface continues to give the impression that it's still a bunch of widgets rendered by a hundred microservices and glued together without any elegant cohesion in mind. It's as if little has changed since the famous Steve Yegge's letter.
- slowmotiony 3y ago
  It's even more baffling that Amazon.pl has one of the worst customer support I've ever seen while Amazon.de is a total opposite - an increadibly pleasant experience and packages almost always arrive on the next day.
- scyzoryk_xyz 3y ago
  I'm no fan of either - Allegro has Amazon executives and nearly identical Prime-free shipping strategy. Pretty sure Allegro has the same effect of monopolizing and driving up prices as Amazon has. I find the eBay-esque artifact interface absurd. It's likely Amazon hasn't found a way because an environment that isn't a monopoly isn't attractive to begin with for that business model.
  - scotty79 3y ago
    I think Allegro lowers prices because it forces sellers into common arena where they have no choice but to compete with each other. It's usually cheaper to buy stuff on Allegro than on dedicated e-commerce site.
    - willcipriano 3y ago
      That's how Amazon was until they got enough market share to start milking sellers for more
      - scotty79 3y ago
        Maybe tipping point is ahead of us. But Allegro already has 20mln unique users monthly (in a country of 36mln people) and twice as many as next largest, AliExpress.

StefanBatory 3y ago

Polish Amazon is such in a weird spot. Compared to Allegro, it has close to no offers, and search engine. Just. Doesn't. Work.

kolinko 3y ago
+1. When in Poland I use Allegro all the time - way more reliable than Amazon.pl. Not as good as Amazon in the states though. My friends who moved back from the Bay Area still prefer to use Amazon, but they use Amazon.de instead - similar shipping times, and much better selection and reliability.
- chihuahua 3y ago
  Not sure if this is still the case, but Amazon.de used to use fulfillment centers in Poland to deliver to Germany. So if you're in Poland and ordering from Amazon.de, your order could very well be delivered from Poland to Poland.
  - gambiting 3y ago
    In fact there were 3 massive Amazon fullfilment centres in Poland before Amazon.pl even launched lol. It's a weird(but very interesting) market with its own big players that neither Amazon nor ebay managed to compete against.
ivanjermakov 3y ago
Amazon's search in Poland is atrocious. I only get international offers where shipping costs are higher than good's price. What the hell?
voytec 3y ago
amazon.pl doesn't have English version. Auto-translated titles and descriptions are atrocious. amazon.de on the other hand has English version and stuff is sent from warehouses in Poland anyway.

dehrmann 3y ago

> stellar I'm not sure enough to know if that's sarcastic, but the circumstances make me wonder if this was to promote local competitors or score political points.

scyzoryk_xyz 3y ago
No no, I'm serious. I have friends in banking who had experiences coming under UOKiK scrutiny and they claim that it really has it's shit together. I have no doubt that there is dysfunction in the system, just not when it comes to regulation of this sector apparently.
wao0uuno 3y ago
UOKiK is pretty well known for doing a great job. I had some money returned from my ISP because of UOKiK. I saw big red banners on websites basically saying that they have to apologise for ripping off their customers because UOKiK is holding them by the balls. I had my refunds rejected but then approved immediately after mentioning UOKiK.

jakubadamw 3y ago

I am honestly baffled Amazon hasn't found a way to compete with Allegro. I am happy about it, but also baffled. Allegro's customer experience is just stellar, whereas Amazon's interface continues to give the impression that it's still a bunch of widgets rendered by a hundred microservices and glued together without any elegant cohesion in mind. It's as if little has changed since the famous Steve Yegge's letter.

slowmotiony 3y ago
It's even more baffling that Amazon.pl has one of the worst customer support I've ever seen while Amazon.de is a total opposite - an increadibly pleasant experience and packages almost always arrive on the next day.
scyzoryk_xyz 3y ago
I'm no fan of either - Allegro has Amazon executives and nearly identical Prime-free shipping strategy. Pretty sure Allegro has the same effect of monopolizing and driving up prices as Amazon has. I find the eBay-esque artifact interface absurd. It's likely Amazon hasn't found a way because an environment that isn't a monopoly isn't attractive to begin with for that business model.
- scotty79 3y ago
  I think Allegro lowers prices because it forces sellers into common arena where they have no choice but to compete with each other. It's usually cheaper to buy stuff on Allegro than on dedicated e-commerce site.
  - willcipriano 3y ago
    That's how Amazon was until they got enough market share to start milking sellers for more
    - scotty79 3y ago
      Maybe tipping point is ahead of us. But Allegro already has 20mln unique users monthly (in a country of 36mln people) and twice as many as next largest, AliExpress.