Statistics Poland (GUS) has published retail sales data for February. Below is a commentary prepared by Miłosz Mickiewicz, Sales and Business Development Director at Comperia.pl Group S.A.
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Statistics Poland (GUS) released retail sales data for February 2026. The results indicate solid year-on-year performance in Polish retail—sales in constant prices increased by 5.0% compared to the same period last year. However, on a month-to-month basis, sales declined by 5.6%, which is consistent with the typical seasonal pattern of weakening demand following post-holiday sales.
In the e-commerce sector, February brought stabilization. The value of online sales (in current prices) was 8.7% higher than a year earlier. The share of e-commerce in total retail sales reached 9.3%, up from 9.0% in February 2025, although slightly lower than in January.
The most important changes, however, are taking place within specific categories, where we are observing processes of market normalization and a return to historical trends.
This is particularly evident in the category of motor vehicles, motorcycles, and parts. Year-on-year data on online sales dynamics show a sharp decline—to 31.8% of last year’s level. At first glance, this may appear to signal a downturn. In reality, it reflects an exceptionally strong base effect. In 2025, online car sales experienced extraordinary, triple-digit growth. The current result, although lower than a year ago, remains high when compared with 2024 and earlier periods.
What has changed is the structure of market shares. In 2025, online penetration in this category reached 5–6%. In February 2026, however, it dropped to 1.6%, indicating that e-commerce in the automotive sector is returning to levels seen before last year’s boom, when it hovered around 1%.
A completely different trend can be observed in the textiles, clothing, and footwear category. The share of online sales in this group rose to 31.2% (up from 26.3% in January). This is an exceptional result—the last time the share exceeded 30% was in April 2021, during the pandemic lockdown, when brick-and-mortar retail was heavily restricted.
What makes the current result particularly significant is that it has been achieved under conditions of full availability of physical stores. This indicates that e-commerce has firmly established itself as the dominant purchasing channel for fashion among a large segment of consumers.
It is also worth examining the category of food, beverages, and tobacco products. Online sales in this group increased by 3.8% year-on-year. Importantly, however, despite this growth, the share of e-commerce within the category has remained virtually unchanged for a prolonged period, at around 0.8%. This suggests that online channels in the grocery sector are not displacing brick-and-mortar sales, but are instead growing in proportion to traditional retail. E-grocery thus remains a stable yet still niche complement to everyday shopping in Poland.
In summary, February 2026 can be seen as a month of market verification. The automotive segment has returned to more stable levels after what appears to have been an anomalous year, the fashion sector has demonstrated that a 30% online share is the new reality, and the grocery category has shown a model example of balanced growth between online and offline channels.
As a result, 2026 is shaping up to be a year of e-commerce maturity, where success will be determined less by the race for market share and more by consistent presence in the consumer’s shopping basket.
