Allegro’s International Surge: Why CEE Marketplaces Deserve a Second Look
24 July 2026
By Sonja Brennan – Director of Global Sales
Allegro Group, Poland’s dominant online marketplace, just posted preliminary Q2 results that should catch every cross-border seller’s attention. Group GMV grew 13.7% in H1 2026, but the standout number is international: GMV outside Poland jumped 64.8% for the half and an eye-catching 82.4% in Q2 alone. Group adjusted EBITDA is up nearly 17%, and results are already tracking ahead of Allegro’s own full-year guidance.
For brands weighing where to expand next, this is a signal worth pausing on. Allegro’s growth isn’t coming from Poland alone anymore CEO Marcin Kuśmierz was explicit that the strategy is to become “the marketplace of choice” in Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary. That’s a market of tens of millions of consumers with comparatively less marketplace saturation than Western Europe, and a platform that’s actively investing to win share there.
A few developments make this more than a one-quarter blip. Allegro recently sold off its Slovenian and Croatian operations to sharpen focus on its core growth markets, and it has partnered with Arvato to strengthen fulfillment infrastructure — a sign it’s building the logistics backbone to support sustained international scale, not just short-term promotional spikes. Layer on Allegro’s ongoing AI investment (including its OpenAI partnership) and a buyback signaling management’s confidence in the numbers, and the picture is a marketplace consolidating momentum rather than chasing a temporary bump.
Why this matters for our brands: Allegro remains under-the-radar for many Western brands compared to Amazon, yet it commands serious scale and loyalty across Central and Eastern Europe. With international GMV growing six times faster than the Polish core, the window to establish an early foothold before competition intensifies is now, not later.
If you’re already selling on Allegro, this is a good moment to revisit investment levels there as the platform doubles down on CEE expansion. If you’re not yet present, it’s worth a conversation: Luzern eCommerce can help assess fit, map the operational requirements, and build a launch plan tailored to Allegro’s marketplace mechanics and the broader Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian opportunity.
Reach out to our Luzern team to talk through what an Allegro or CEE expansion could look like for your brand.