The total value of Allegro’s assistance to battle the coronavirus pandemic in Poland reached PLN 375m
- The total value of Allegro’s help to fight the consequences of the virus already reached over PLN375m
- Over 40 hospitals and medical institutions from across Poland received instant support either in a form of direct donations or delivery of essential equipment: 2 covid testing laboratories in Warsaw and Poznan, 24 respirators, 365 thousand masks and 8000 liters of disinfectants; 12 thousand 3D-printed face shields.
- Allegro continues to support Polish customers. Already over 2.5m Poles signed up to the free Allegro Smart! package and saved PLN325m on delivery costs;
- A three month Merchant Support Package worth PLN46m was used by 65% of all merchants and since its launch in March 15 thousand new companies joined the platform to launch their online business on Allegro - twice the usual number.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the total value of all the activities launched by Allegro exceeded PLN 375m. It included various socially important activities focused on minimizing the possible negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic and prolonged state of lockdown for the Polish society and economy. With social distancing rules, consumers are counting on Allegro to provide them with quick and easy access to the vast selection of everyday products, so they don’t need to leave home to do their shopping. Allegro and 100 thousand merchants using its platform offers fast and easy access to over one hundred million of products, delivered - even the next day - to a nationwide network of pickup points, supplemented by courier service.
- Even though Allegro and online shopping in general got some tailwind due to the safety of online shopping, we focused on ‘doing the right thing’ using our resources to support consumers, merchants and the Polish community. I’m impressed by the speed at which our teams pivoted creating ideas on how we could support and launching those initiatives whilst they themselves were faced by the uncertainty. - commented Francois Nuyts, CEO of Allegro - Online-based companies all over the world have proven to be an essential part of everyday lives of people during lockdown. As a platform visited by 18m Poles each month with 100k merchants onboard, most of them SMEs, we focused on initiatives that would allow us to use the whole potential of the Allegro ecosystem and use it to achieve the biggest possible impact in fighting the negative consequences of the coronavirus. - adds Nuyts.
Support to the Polish healthcare
For many years, Allegro has been making available tools to conduct charitable activities, engaging millions of Poles. In the face of the pandemic we launched a comprehensive support program for the Polish healthcare, also leveraging the long standing experience in this area of Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy who’s been our partner for many years. It enabled the purchase of 24 ventilators for Polish hospitals. In addition, a charity fundraiser organised by Allegro has been launched, which will provide more financial support to the Fund and allow the purchase of the necessary equipment to save the lives and health of Poles. A donation from the symbolic PLN 5 up to PLN 100, can be made via the site: koronawirus.allegro.pl.
We also sponsored 2 complete covid testing laboratories in Warsaw and in Poznan, purchased and delivered 365 thousand masks and 8 thousand litres of disinfectant fluids for over 40 hospitals and healthcare units across Poland. The company also purchased 10 - 3D printers for a Sopot based group of Middle School students, which allowed for the production of 400 face shields for doctors and nurses daily. Additionally, Allegro is also providing deliveries of fresh fruit and vegetables to hospitals in five cities. So far 14 tonnes of fruit have been donated.
While Allegro employees are trying to juggle office and family responsibilities from home, they are still actively involved in many initiatives related to coronavirus in their local communities. To allow them to gain even more impact, Allegro created a special Employee Initiative Fund with a total budget of PLN 1m, resulting in 42 local support projects including such initiatives as delivering free meals for seniors, buying laptops for children from large families or schools, or purchase of walkie-talkies or other the necessary personal protection equipment for local hospitals and medical rescue teams. Allegro employees are actively involved in those projects and often also engage their families or friends.
Support initiatives for clients...
Since March 17, for the third consecutive month, Poles can do convenient shopping and save money by using the special free Allegro Smart! monthly subscription, which allows them to do shopping with free delivery- either to pick-up point or by courier. Clients appreciate this opportunity -over 2.5 million Poles have already signed up to it and saved approx. PLN 375m on delivery costs.
To support clients that are just beginning their journey, Allegro has opened a special infoline - mostly dedicated to seniors. Customer service advisors are available to offer assistance regarding shopping at Allegro: opening an account, searching for offers, making payments or choosing the best delivery option. The overall number of advisors available to clients in all the Allegro contact channels increased by 20% to make sure customers can get quick assistance.
… and merchants
Polish retail companies, most of them SMEs and small family businesses, were negatively impacted by the pandemic situation and look for ways to quickly switch to online sales. Also many of the 100 thousand Allegro merchants experienced difficulties, such as staff shortage or cash flow problems. To help them sustain their business Allegro introduced a support package for merchants which includes payment time extensions, access to quick online credit for micro companies and delays in the previously announced fee changes. The package was also prolonged and will be available until the end of June. Its total value is PLN 46m. So far, it’s been used by 64% of the current Allegro merchants.
The crucial element of the package are tools enabling new companies to start selling online on Allegro and operate for the first 3 months without paying any fees. It allows them to quickly start sales using the Allegro infrastructure, which is much faster and easier than setting up their own online store. The number of new companies entering the platform doubled, and reaching 15 thousand companies since the package was introduced. This means that every 5 minutes a new business starts sales on Allegro.
Allegro also prepared a similar solution for small local businesses, often family owned. They can sell their ‘essential products’ for free in the newly created category ‘Lokalny Ryneczek’ on Allegro Lokalnie. Even in the face of the gradual ‘defreezing” of the economy the influx of companies to the platform is very visible.