How do people in Poland pay online?
Most Poles shop online. Eurostat puts the share of people who bought something online in the previous 12 months at 69.73% in 2025, against an EU average of 73.56%. Gemius, in its E-commerce in Poland 2025 report, found that 78% of internet users buy online and 82% of online shoppers use a smartphone to do it. Statistics Poland (GUS) reported that internet sales were 9.0% of retail sales in August 2026, up from 8.1% a year earlier, and that the value of internet sales rose 17.5% year on year.
BLIK is the first choice at checkout. In the Gemius survey, as summarised by Przelewy24, 72% of online shoppers had paid with BLIK, 64% by fast bank transfer and 43% by card. BLIK is a mobile payment system built into Polish banking apps: the shopper generates a six-digit code in the app, types it at checkout and approves the payment on their phone. It was launched in 2015 and is owned by Alior Bank, Millennium Bank, Erste Bank Polska, ING Bank Śląski, mBank, PKO Bank Polski and Mastercard.
Its volumes are large and growing. BLIK reported 2.9 billion transactions worth PLN 441.5 billion in 2025 and 20.7 million active accounts at the end of the year. E-commerce made up nearly half of all BLIK transactions, with 1.4 billion payments worth PLN 219 billion. In the first half of 2026 it handled 1.6 billion transactions worth PLN 244.8 billion, with 21.6 million active users at the end of June; 766.7 million of those transactions, worth PLN 124.5 billion, were online purchases. BLIK also offers recurring payments (1.6 million in 2025) and a pay-later option (235,500 transactions in 2025), both still small next to one-off payments.
Fast transfers come through aggregators. Przelewy24 is one of the best known. It is run by PayPro SA, in which Nets took a 51% stake in 2019, and Nets is now part of the Nexi group. Its payment page offers pay-by-link transfers from Polish banks, BLIK and cards among 13 methods. The shopper picks a bank, signs in and approves a transfer with the amount and reference already filled in.
Cards are the third option. Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards are widely held, and card payments are confirmed with the issuer’s authentication step, usually in the banking app.
What rules shape online payments in Poland?
Shoppers have 14 days to withdraw. Under the Consumer Rights Act of 30 May 2014, a consumer can withdraw from a distance contract within 14 days without giving a reason, counted from receipt of the goods. The seller must refund the payment within 14 days of the withdrawal, using the same payment method the consumer used unless they agree otherwise. The seller may hold back the refund until the goods come back or the consumer shows proof of sending them.
Discounts need the 30-day lowest price. Since the EU Omnibus rules were brought into Polish law, a seller announcing a price reduction must also show the lowest price of that product in the 30 days before the reduction. The consumer protection office UOKiK explains the rule on its consumer rights site.
VAT is 23%, with reduced rates of 8% and 5% for listed goods and services. A seller established in another EU country whose cross-border sales to consumers across the EU pass EUR 10,000 a year charges Polish VAT on sales to Polish customers, and can declare it through the One Stop Shop instead of registering in Poland. Businesses in Poland also have to issue invoices through the national e-invoicing system KSeF: large firms from 1 February 2026 and other taxpayers from 1 April 2026.
Online stores must be accessible. The Polish act implementing the European Accessibility Act (Journal of Laws 2024, item 731) has applied since 28 June 2025 and covers e-commerce services, so checkout pages and payment steps need to meet its accessibility requirements.
How would Omno route payments in Poland?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, currency and customer group. In Poland:
- BLIK pay-ins would go to a provider that supports BLIK, with the hosted checkout collecting the six-digit code and the order pending until the shopper approves in their banking app.
- Pay-by-link transfers could be offered through an aggregator such as Przelewy24, with the result confirmed by the provider’s notification rather than by the shopper’s return to the store.
- Card pay-ins can be routed by BIN, with cascading to the next provider in the rule if one is unavailable or rejects the request.
Webhooks would report the final status of every payment, the record a back office should trust before shipping an order, and the routing-decision log would show which provider handled each payment and why.
What should merchants plan for?
Plan for BLIK first. It is the method most Polish online shoppers have used, and a checkout without it asks them to change habits. Keep the code entry short, because the code expires after two minutes.
Plan for refunds in 14 days by the same method. BLIK and Przelewy24 both support full and partial refunds, so a returns process can pay back through the original route.
Plan for VAT and invoicing. Check whether your EU sales pass the EUR 10,000 threshold, show the 30-day lowest price next to every discount, and confirm whether KSeF applies to your Polish entity.