The Poland-DACH corridor

Commercraft specialises in the Poland-DACH corridor. We help you grow across both markets, whether you are based in Poland, in the DACH region or further afield and want to expand here. We know both ends of this corridor because we have worked on both sides. It is not limited to Poland and DACH: we run the same playbook for any single European market or any combination, from Germany, France or the Netherlands to the Nordics, or a mix of them.

The DACH market explained

DACH stands for three markets: Deutschland, Austria and Confoederatio Helvetica, the Latin name for Switzerland. They share the German language and similar buyer expectations. For tax and customs they are two separate worlds, because Germany and Austria are in the EU and Switzerland is not.

Germany: €83.1 billion in e-commerce turnover in 2025, up 3.2%, with marketplaces accounting for 56% of that value, or €46.2 billion. The forecast for 2026 is growth of 3.8%.
Austria: €12.3 billion in online spending according to a June 2026 study, up 3%, of which €5.4 billion came from smartphones and tablets.
Switzerland: CHF 15.8 billion in 2025, up 6%, and CHF 2.8 billion of it, or 18%, is cross-border shopping. VAT is 8.1%, and a parcel is only exempt from import VAT when the tax comes to CHF 5 or less, which means goods worth up to about CHF 62.

For a seller based in Poland, Germany and Austria mean one set of EU obligations and no customs. Switzerland is a separate project, with customs clearance for every parcel and its own VAT threshold.

Sources: bevh and EHI, German e-commerce data for 2025 (January 2026), Handelsverband, e-commerce study for Austria (June 2026), market data on Swiss e-commerce for 2025, Swiss customs (BAZG), import VAT rules for parcels (October 2026).

Poland to DACH: why now

More than half of German e-commerce now runs through marketplaces, so launching on Amazon.de, Kaufland.de or OTTO is faster than building your own shop and traffic from scratch. A buyer in Germany compares your offer with a local supplier that ships next day, and checks the stated delivery time before adding a product to the basket.

A Polish manufacturer has a cost advantage here: production and warehousing in Poland, German prices. The advantage shrinks once returns and registrations enter the calculation. In Germany almost one in four consumer parcels comes back. LUCID registration itself takes a few minutes, but it requires a contract with a dual system, the scheme that takes back and recycles packaging. Both items are worth costing before the first season starts.

We break down what shipping and returns cost on this route in our guide Cross-border logistics Poland-DACH.

Target marketplaces in DACH

Amazon.de: the largest channel in Germany, €52.0 billion in marketplace sales in 2024. The Professional plan costs €39 a month net, and commission in most categories falls between 8-15%.
Zalando: fashion and lifestyle, via the Partner Program or Connected Retail. Zalando has no open registration, and buyers get 30 days for free returns.
OTTO: home, furniture and electronics, around €7.5 billion GMV in the 2025/26 financial year, open to sellers who apply and pass verification, with German-language customer service required.
Kaufland.de: one registration opens nine markets, a subscription of €39.95 or €59.95 net a month, commission of 7-16%. Kaufland puts its reach at 220 million potential customers.
home24: furniture, lighting and décor. The first three months are free of subscription, then €39 a month plus 9-22% commission.
Decathlon: sport and outdoor, partners join by invitation, shipping within two working days.
OBI: DIY and garden, a marketplace since 2024 in Germany and since June 2026 in Austria, around 13.7 million visits a month.

How we can support you in the DACH markets

Market entry strategy: choice of platforms, category order and timeline, calculated against your margin.
Registrations: German VAT or OSS reporting, LUCID and VerpackG, WEEE for electronics, BattDG for batteries. We tell you which of them apply to you and run the process together with you. We advise and help with the paperwork, but we are not a law firm.
Integrations: Base.com, ChannelEngine, the PIM or ERP you already use, plus your product feed.
Listing: when the data is in good shape, we publish dozens, sometimes hundreds of listings a day. We estimate the pace for your catalogue before we start working together.
Translation: we are an international team with German speakers on board, so machine translation gets a second, human check before it reaches your product pages.
Advertising: Amazon Ads, Zalando Marketing Services, Kaufland Ads.
Account management: we monitor sales, prices and quality metrics continuously, because account metrics decide how visible your listings are, and on Amazon also whether your account gets suspended.

DACH to Poland: the new direction

The Polish market grows faster than Western ones and has one clear centre of gravity. Allegro, the largest marketplace in Poland, turned over PLN 36.87 billion (EUR 8.45 billion) in the first half of 2026, up 13.7% year on year, with more than 150,000 sellers and over 90 million products.

That is why more and more companies from DACH, the Benelux and Scandinavia ask us about entering Poland. We help them understand how this ecosystem works and get onto the main platforms.

Polish marketplaces

Allegro: the dominant marketplace in Poland, with 20.9 million active buyers across the group, 15.6 million of them in Poland. Its Smart! delivery programme has more than 9 million subscribers.
Empik: books, electronics, home and lifestyle. Marketplace turnover passed PLN 1 billion (EUR 229.2 million) in 2025, the platform reports 12 million buyers and over 30,000 sellers, and commission is usually 3-13% net.
Erli: a generalist with an open model and easy entry, paid per sale.

Sources: Allegro, results for the second quarter and first half of 2026 (September 2026), Empik announcement of 14 July 2026 and the Empik Place commission table (August 2026).

How we help foreign companies enter Poland

Market analysis: competition, price levels and what Polish buyers expect, broken down by category.
Localisation: translation into Polish with a second, human check, plus category naming and attributes that match what buyers search for.
Registrations: Polish VAT, BDO (the Polish waste and packaging register), KYC verification data. The platform verifies the account, we prepare the full data set and guide you through the process.
Operations: listing, advertising, customer service in Polish and day-to-day account management.

Why Commercraft

Knowledge of both markets: we have worked on the marketplace operator side and on the seller side, so we know the rules and nuances at both ends of the corridor.
Languages: we talk to you and to the platform in Polish, English, German, French, Dutch and Romanian.
Scale: our team has run sales on 26 markets and six platforms at the same time.
Pricing: managing one platform starts at PLN 2,900 (EUR 664.63) a month, and we describe our engagement models in our price list. The notice period is two months.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to enter the German market? The platforms’ fixed costs are public: Amazon €39 a month net, Kaufland €39.95 or €59.95, home24 €39 from the fourth month. On top of that come registrations, catalogue translation and integration. Managing one platform on our side starts at PLN 2,900 (EUR 664.63) a month, and you can work out the full calculation in our ROI calculator.

How long does it take to start selling? Setting up an account on Kaufland or Amazon is quick, and verification usually means a video identification and a few working days. Without an EPR number from the LUCID register, the platforms block listings in Germany. The application itself takes a few minutes, but you need to sign a contract with a dual system before you file it. Zalando and Decathlon work by invitation, so there the timing depends on the platform.

Do I need a company in Germany? No. A Polish limited company or sole trader sells directly. You need a German VAT number when you store goods there, for example in FBA. OSS reporting does not replace that registration.

Do you also help foreign companies enter Poland? Yes. We run the whole onboarding on Allegro, Empik and the other Polish platforms, in the client’s language.

Sources

Market and regulatory data as of October 2026: bevh and EHI (e-commerce in Germany 2025, marketplace share, platform GMV), OTTO (results for the 2025/26 financial year), Handelsverband (Austria, June 2026), market data on e-commerce in Switzerland for 2025, BAZG (import VAT on parcels), Allegro (results for the first half of 2026), Empik (announcement of 14 July 2026), Kaufland Global Marketplace terms, sell.amazon.de (pricing), home24sellerportal.com (seller FAQ), the University of Bamberg and EHI (returns in Germany 2025), VerpackG and ZSVR (LUCID).

EUR conversions: NBP rate of 18 September 2026 (table 182/A/NBP/2026), EUR 1 = PLN 4.3633.

Planning an expansion into DACH or an entry into Poland?

We’ll run your project in both directions along the Poland-DACH corridor, strategically and operationally.