Smart! and the Bill It GeneratesNarrow moat

Allegro (ALE) — moat facet

Seven and a half million people have prepaid for the habit, and Allegro pays a courier every time they use it.

Smart! is the best thing Allegro has built and the most expensive, and those are the same sentence rather than two.

Growing faster than revenue, FY2025 (%)+26,2%Cost of delivery+16,5%Staff costs+11,2%Marketing services+10,5%RevenueDelivery is 31% of revenue and grew two and a half times faster
The moat and the largest expense are the same product.

The subscription passed 7,5 million users in Poland1 — a country of some 37 million people — and it does what a marketplace otherwise cannot: it makes the buyer pay in advance for the habit. Somebody who has bought a year of free delivery has a reason to check Allegro first that has nothing to do with price on any given item, and Allegro's relational net promoter score of 832 is what that arrangement produces.

The bill arrives every time they order. Cost of delivery was 3 578,9 million złoty in 2025, up 26,2% against revenue growth of 10,5%3 — 31% of everything the company earns, and the largest expense it has. The filing decomposes the increase without flinching: Smart! parcel volume contributed 14,4 percentage points of the growth and the expansion of Allegro Delivery a further 7,5, with unit costs adding 3,34.

That last component is where the trouble is, and Allegro names the party responsible. "The majority of the pricing headwind has come from higher prices charged by InPost from January 2025 in accordance with the terms of the long term agreement that expires in 2027"5. The company that carries most of Allegro's parcels raised its prices, and the contract that governs it runs out in about a year.

So the strategy of the last two years reads as an escape. Allegro's One Box network passed 11 000 lockers by June 20266, has added DHL and DPD alongside InPost, Orlen Paczka and Poczta Polska, and takes end-to-end responsibility across all of them7. The share of parcels it manages itself went from 24% to 41% in a single quarter8.

Rated narrow. A subscription with 7,5 million members is a genuine asset; a subscription whose unit economics are set by a supplier's price list is a conditional one.

The measure is cost of delivery as a share of revenue against the managed-delivery share. If the managed share keeps climbing and the cost line stops outgrowing revenue, the escape worked. If delivery keeps growing at two and a half times revenue, Smart! is a promise Allegro has sold and somebody else prices.

Moat trajectory: Holding steady

Membership passed 7,5 million and the cost of honouring it grew 26,2% against revenue growth of 10,5%. The asset and the liability are growing together.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Cost of delivery, first half
2 006,3m zł in H1 2026, +21,5%

Free delivery is the moat and the largest cost; growth well above revenue growth (15,9%) is the bill for it.

Source: Allegro.eu Group half-year report for the six months ended 30 June 2026 ↗
Aspects of the moat
DIG DEEPER 01
Seven and a Half Million Prepaid Habits
The only contract anywhere in this business is with the buyer, it costs very little, and it lapses if they do nothing.
DIG DEEPER 02
Thirty-One Percent of Revenue Goes on Postage
The largest line in the accounts grew two and a half times faster than sales, and two-thirds of that was deliberate.
DIG DEEPER 03
Eleven Thousand Lockers
A company that spent two decades owning nothing is putting steel boxes in Polish streets, to change what it gets asked to pay in 2027.
DIG DEEPER 04
Twenty-Four to Forty-One Percent
The fastest-moving number in the company, and the one that decides whether Smart! is an asset or an invoice.
⚠ Threats to the moat
⚠ THREAT 01
The Supplier Raised Its Prices, and the Contract Ends in 2027
A supplier raised the price of a third of Allegro's revenue, and both sides know the agreement runs out next year.
⚠ THREAT 02
Free Delivery Is a Promise With No Price Ceiling
The subscriber pays once a year and the courier is paid every time, so the most engaged customers are the least profitable.
References
  1. Third-party estimateThe subscription passed 7,5 million users in Poland — a country of some 37 million people — and it does what a marketplace otherwise cannot: it makes the buyer pay in advance for the habit.
    Statistics Poland (GUS) - the population of Poland, 37,33 million in 2025, against Allegro's 15,5 million Polish active buyers — 2025 · publ. 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedSomebody who has bought a year of free delivery has a reason to check Allegro first that has nothing to do with price on any given item, and Allegro's relational net promoter score of 83 is what that arrangement produces.
    Allegro.eu Annual Consolidated Report 2025 - management report, business and operations (69 163,1m złoty of gross merchandise value with 68 282,4m third-party, 20,4 million active buyers, the Smart! programme past 7,5 million users in Poland at a relational net promoter score of 83, Allegro Pay financing 15,4% of purchases, Allegro One Box lockers, Ceneo and the PKO Bank Polski partnership) — FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedCost of delivery was 3 578,9 million złoty in 2025, up 26,2% against revenue growth of 10,5% — 31% of everything the company earns, and the largest expense it has.
    Allegro.eu Annual Consolidated Report 2025 - management report, cost review (cost of delivery of 3 578,9m złoty up 26,2% against revenue growth of 10,5%, its decomposition into Smart! volume, the expansion of Allegro Delivery and unit cost, the InPost pricing headwind under an agreement expiring in 2027, marketing service expenses at 2,07% of GMV, staff and IT costs, and capital expenditure of 470,4m) — FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
  4. Reportedparcel volume contributed 14,4 percentage points of the growth and the expansion of Allegro Delivery a further 7,5, with unit costs adding 3,3.
    Allegro.eu Annual Consolidated Report 2025 - management report, business and operations (69 163,1m złoty of gross merchandise value with 68 282,4m third-party, 20,4 million active buyers, the Smart! programme past 7,5 million users in Poland at a relational net promoter score of 83, Allegro Pay financing 15,4% of purchases, Allegro One Box lockers, Ceneo and the PKO Bank Polski partnership) — FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
  5. Reported"The majority of the pricing headwind has come from higher prices charged by InPost from January 2025 in accordance with the terms of the long term agreement that expires in 2027".
    Allegro.eu Annual Consolidated Report 2025 - management report, cost review (cost of delivery of 3 578,9m złoty up 26,2% against revenue growth of 10,5%, its decomposition into Smart! volume, the expansion of Allegro Delivery and unit cost, the InPost pricing headwind under an agreement expiring in 2027, marketing service expenses at 2,07% of GMV, staff and IT costs, and capital expenditure of 470,4m) — FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
  6. ReportedThe Allegro One locker network exceeded 11 thousand automated parcel machines by 30 June 2026.
    Allegro.eu Group half-year report for the six months ended 30 June 2026 (published 17 September 2026) - KPIs: active buyers, GMV, GMV per buyer, take rate by segment and its explanation, adjusted EBITDA; income statement by segment; cost of delivery; lockers; Allegro Pay; buyback phase 1 — H1 2026 · publ. 17 September 2026 · source ↗
  7. ReportedAllegro now operates more than 8 500 One Box lockers in Poland and more than 800 in Czechia, has added DHL and DPD alongside InPost, Orlen Paczka and Poczta Polska, and takes end-to-end responsibility across all of them.
    Allegro.eu Annual Consolidated Report 2025 - management report, cost review (cost of delivery of 3 578,9m złoty up 26,2% against revenue growth of 10,5%, its decomposition into Smart! volume, the expansion of Allegro Delivery and unit cost, the InPost pricing headwind under an agreement expiring in 2027, marketing service expenses at 2,07% of GMV, staff and IT costs, and capital expenditure of 470,4m) — FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
  8. ReportedThe share of parcels it manages itself went from 24% to 41% in a single quarter.
    Allegro.eu Annual Consolidated Report 2025 - management report, business and operations (69 163,1m złoty of gross merchandise value with 68 282,4m third-party, 20,4 million active buyers, the Smart! programme past 7,5 million users in Poland at a relational net promoter score of 83, Allegro Pay financing 15,4% of purchases, Allegro One Box lockers, Ceneo and the PKO Bank Polski partnership) — FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 24, 2026