Dear Reader,
Thank you for taking the time to read Allegro’s ESG report. It covers the year 2020 – marked so painfully by the COVID-19 pandemic, which remains present in our everyday lives. At the very start of the pandemic, we made the health and safety of our employees and our merchants and their loved ones our top priority. In the spring, we launched a number of initiatives to fight the negative effects of COVID-19 and support our employees, customers, merchants and Polish healthcare professionals. The total value of our assistance was almost PLN 500 million, including considerable donations to the local healthcare system, free SMART! subscriptions for all customers and support packages for merchants as well as countless hours of volunteering. All of these valuable contributions would not have been possible without the hard work and passion of the over 3,000 people working at Allegro, which included a total of 77 volunteering projects organised by colleagues in their local communities. I am really proud of all of the above.
COVID-19 has been just another proof of what a difference companies can make if they put into practice their principles. This has been our story from the day Allegro was created 20+ years ago. As a marketplace platform, we focus on enabling and supporting Polish companies. During the first lockdown, we created a comprehensive support package for both current sellers and those who were forced to move online due to offline trading limitations. It included a welcome pack for new sellers with no fees, extension of payment terms and delay of changes in the platform to allow them to have more business stability and flexibility. It allowed them to weather the difficult times and take advantage of the accelerating trend of moving shopping from offline to online. We are a platform of growth for over 130,000 merchants, mainly small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, who can reach over 13m active buyers (as of December 2020).
Looking forward, we continue our sustainable journey with the 2020–2023 CSR & Sustainability strategy. We want Allegro to be a platform for sustainable shopping, which makes it even easier for consumers to make responsible choices. We will also continue to support merchants and remain a great place for them to grow their businesses. We proudly underline that we operate in Poland, which is also where we pay our taxes. In 2020, we paid almost PLN 900 million in VAT and CIT. This can be compared to one third of the state expenses on higher education and science in 2021.
The main areas and goals outlined in our strategy are as follows:
Rolling out ambitious business plans or constructing a sustainable growth agenda would never be possible without the amazing teams that work at Allegro and Ceneo. We promote sustainable ideas among our teams and involve them in every activity.
It is to my satisfaction that ESG has remained very high on our agenda and we are consistently pursuing our strategy in this area. I am also pleased that I can share with you the key results of our activities. It is particularly important to emphasise that our corporate responsibility & sustainability policy and strategy for 2020-2023 is progressive and ambitious. The strategy assumes transformation and improvement in many areas. Moreover, Allegro is ready to take the role of leader in sustainable development. As a Member of the Board, I truly believe and support sustainable e-commerce, because the transition to sustainability is the greatest challenge that our society needs to face.
We not only watch but also set the trends to increase consumer sustainability awareness.
In response to the pandemic, Allegro has taken actions to support customers, merchants, the Polish society, as well as health service. The engagement of employees who were involved in 77 volunteering initiatives to fight COVID-19 was impressive. The total monetary value of Allegro’s contribution to aid during the pandemic achieved PLN 490m.
The company puts a lot of effort to support and help the communities we operate in. Sharing and transferring our knowledge and experience during hackathons, educating youth, children and entrepreneurs in many initiatives we take part in is an opportunity to build strong human and social capital.
I am proud that Allegro.eu is committed to advancing diversity and inclusion (D&I) practices across its strategies and operations. As leaders, we hold ourselves accountable for meeting diversity and inclusion targets and make sure all of the changes are in the right direction.
Allegro.eu values reflected in our code of conduct, governance and compliance are of key importance to us. Safety and convenience of customers and merchants are the guiding principles that underpin our ethical and transparent approach. As a growing marketplace, we strive towards top-class customer & data privacy, cybersecurity and data protection.
