- In the second quarter of 2024, the retail market in Poland increased its resources by approximately 135,000 sq m of modern space, with the new supply including both the opening of new facilities and the expansion of existing ones.
- At the end of June, approximately 335,000 square meters of new retail space and approximately 110,000 square meters of space consisting of extensions or format changes were under construction.
- The highest saturation rates with modern retail space are consistently observed in the Wrocław and Poznań agglomerations, where they are at the level of 1,024 and 973 m2/1,000 inhabitants, respectively, while the lowest rates are in the Katowice conurbation and the Łódź agglomeration (723 m2 and 699 m2/1,000 inhabitants, respectively).
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Retail park with Biedronka under construction in Nowa Ruda 
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Warsaw shopping center sells plot for apartments. Transaction for PLN 20 million
In the second quarter of 2024, the Polish retail market welcomed three new brands, with all openings taking place in Warsaw. The Romanian bakery Luca made its debut, choosing the Polna Corner building as its first location. In turn, the new Veselka craft bar from Ukraine debuted in Browary Warszawskie, and the first Answear.com brick-and-mortar store opened in Fabryka Norblina .
Retail parks are still in demand
Between April and June 2024, nine new facilities, three extensions of existing facilities and three reconstructions were put into use. Only one shopping centre – Galeria Starówka in Leszno, increased its retail stock in this segment in Q2. In turn, Dekada in Grójec and the Nowa Górna retail park in Łódź were expanded (by 5,000 sq m and 3,000 sq m of GLA, respectively). Three buildings of the former Tesco store were rebuilt, and two retail parks in Bytom and one in Piła were built in their place.
The retail park segment once again dominates the opening of new facilities – they were built in Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Olsztyn, Świebodzin, Tychy, Zawiercie and Zgorzelec. In Q2 2024, 3 retail park transactions were also registered covering a total of 4 facilities, of which two transactions concerned facilities located in the Warsaw agglomeration (Łubna and Grodzisk Mazowiecki), and the remaining two covered retail parks in Kłodzko and Kępno. This type of asset is invariably perceived by investors as quite stable and safe.
Changes in the mature shopping mall market
As BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland experts emphasize, the modern retail market in Poland is constantly changing due to its maturity and saturation with retail facilities. As a result, some of the shopping malls in Polish cities have already been demolished, others are waiting to be demolished or their fate is still being decided.
– The main reasons for the demolition of retail facilities were the decline in turnover and the number of customers or new investment plans of the owners of the facilities – says Fabrice Paumelle, Director of the Retail Department at BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland. – Currently, the demolition of Galeria Malta in Poznań is underway, and it will probably be replaced by apartments. In Wrocław, on the other hand, the demolition of Arkady Wrocławskie is to begin this year, and a modern office building with residential space is to be built in its place. Shopping centres will not disappear, although we will see an intensification of various types of activities – from recommercialization, renovations and modernization, through extensions, reconstructions and changes of function, to demolitions in order to recover land and implement new investments.
We have already observed the demolition of shopping malls in Warsaw (Jupiter Shopping Center), Krakow (Krakow Plaza), Katowice (CH Belg), or Sosnowiec (CH Sosnowiec). In their place, new apartments, offices, hotels, or logistics parks are being built.
Non-trading Sundays a financial boost for discount stores
An aspect that may significantly affect the market is the announced liberalization of the regulations on shopping Sundays. The bill assuming two shopping Sundays per month, double pay for work on these days and the need to grant a day off within 6 days before or 6 days after a working Sunday, was adopted in the first reading. It will now go to substantive committees, where MPs will process it and introduce possible amendments.
As indicated by analysts from BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland, contrary to the intentions of the legislator in 2018, the ban on Sunday trading did not contribute to supporting small, local shops in their competition
with large retail chains. According to the Central Statistical Office data, at the end of 2018 the estimated number of stores was almost 340 thousand, while at the end of 2022 it was less than 326 thousand. This means that over the
In 4 years, the number of stores decreased by 14 thousand outlets. After the era of supermarkets and hypermarkets, discount stores and smaller formats became the stores of first choice for Poles.
– Recent years have seen the flourishing of discount chains, which have gained loyal customers thanks to their aggressive marketing and pricing strategies and long opening hours. The current regulations prohibiting Sunday trading are full of arbitrary exemptions that may be a pretext for abuse – emphasize experts from BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland.
Social Selling – A New Engaging Trend in Online Sales
The share of e-commerce in retail sales in May was 8.6%. In the first half of the year, the level of e-commerce in individual months did not fall below 8%. The most popular online shopping categories are invariably press, books, textiles, clothing and footwear. BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland experts point to the growing popularity of the trend of social commerce, i.e. sales using social media platforms.
– Using social commerce can give companies a competitive advantage in the world of e-commerce. Unlike popular marketing strategies, it is based on active action, attractive product presentation and expanding the group of recipients, which contributes to increased sales and building relationships with customers – comments Klaudia Okoń, senior consultant from the Business Intelligence Hub & Consultancy department of BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland.
Shopping malls win…with a ticket
Shop customers who visit the store at least once every few months
and a retail park and a shopping center, they are more likely to choose the center. They have two reasons for this. The basic issue is… the presence of toilets, and also the fact that the entire store offer is located under a roof and does not require going outside.
The advantages of retail parks include the possibility of avoiding crowds (35% of people preferring retail parks), greater peace and quiet in the parks (34%) and convenient access and parking (32%).
Retail parks motivate shopping in a specific store. Most often, it is a grocery store (63% of visitors to retail parks), as well as clothing or footwear stores (62%) and drugstores (58%). Multi-sector stores located in retail parks are very popular, visited by 41% of customers of this format. We most often reach the retail park by car, and it takes us 5 to 20 minutes to get to "our" facility. We most often visit on weekdays.
Factors that determine the choice of a given retail park are primarily location – how close the facility is to home or work, and affordable prices. For 1/3 of retail park customers, the variety of the offer is also important, and for 24%, such aspects as convenient access and convenient parking.
