Cross-Border Online Shopping of Polish Consumers and Cross-Border Online Sales of Polish Companies as Examples of the Processes of the Markets Internationalisation

Abstract

Paper exemplifis markets internationalisation processes taking into account young Polish consumers’ cross-border online shopping, and Polish retailers’ cross-border sales activity, investigated in a qualitative way on the basis of open-ended questions’ responses from the CAWI questionnaire and passive netnography respectively, on the background of relevant comparative statistics from EU countries. Such purchases, within the EU, but also from China or the USA, are made by the growing percentage of young buyers, although the majority of respondents have negative opinions about them, often emerging from stereotypes rather than from their own experience. The perceived barriers from the demand side have a stronger impact on respondents than supply side factors. Identifid demand-side barriers are high prices and other fees, including payment and delivery handling, long delivery times and language barriers. Geo-discrimination practices applied by foreign sellers, usually experienced with regard to delivery and payments are the only signifiant obstacle on the supply side. Polish online retailers’ international operations are typically limited geographically to smaller neighbouring countries or focused on niches (particularly for smaller fims). In those niches, they compete with foreign sellers mainly on product features and customization, but their consumer service is often not satisfying, particularly in terms of response time and language competences.