A short history of Shopee Poland

The history of Shopee Polska lasted only 17 months.

Shopee is a sales platform founded in 2015. Its head office is located in Singapore. For the first four years, its activities were focused on Asian territories. Later, a decision was made to further develop. In this way, branches of the company were established in some Latin American countries (2019), in Mexico (2021) and in Central and Western Europe (2021).

In September 2021, the Polish branch of Shopee was launched, which systematically gained popularity. Within half a year, it was ranked second (after Allegro) of the most visited e-commerce websites. Therefore, the decision from last Thursday (i.e. January 12) that the platform ends its operations on the Polish market on January 13 was taken with surprise. The company’s representatives claimed that the uncertain economic situation of the region, and thus the difficulty in estimating the possible profits and losses, forced them to make such a decision. However, according to experts, the Polish market appeared to the Asian platform as a “peripheral island” and not a key sales market.

It is worth noting that Shopee branches located in Western Europe have also been closed. The French and Spanish branches existed even shorter than the Polish ones, only a few months.

The head of Shopee declares that the platform’s activities will now be focused only on the Asian and Latin American markets. There, the platform has already achieved significant success and sees a real chance to continue it.

Source: https://www.money.pl/gospodarka/koniec-popularnego-sklepu-internetowego-shopee-wycofuje-sie-z-polski-6854737793502112a.html; https://businessinsider.com.pl/biznes/tanczyl-dla-nich-nawet-ronaldo-azje-podbili-w-polsce-shopee-jednak-poleglo/r11xm22; https://www.wirtualnemedia.pl/artykul/koniec-shopee-polska-dlaczego-gdzie-kupowac-w-internecie-zyskuje-allegro