8 months selling into Poland and Germany from a Shopify store: what I got wrong

Started with one market, added Allegro and Kaufland, and burned about six weeks on stuff that had nothing to do with product or ads. Writing this out because most cross-border guides skip the parts that actually cost you time.

What I got wrong first: assuming translation was the work

It isn't. Allegro caps titles at 75 characters and its search ranks on Polish keywords matching how Polish buyers phrase things. My translated English titles were grammatically fine and invisible. Rewrote the top 40 SKUs with a Polish-speaking freelancer and impressions moved within a week. Kaufland is the same story per storefront, and their own guidance says local-language content is the most common reason approved sellers fail to convert. Nine markets now (Germany, Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, France, Italy, plus Spain and the Netherlands added this year), so going wide means nine content variants.

What I got wrong second: not reading the fee structures before pricing

Allegro scrapped listing fees and the unit transaction fee in March last year. One mandatory fee now, the sales commission, but rates went up in selected categories to compensate. Runs 4-15% depending where you list, and category choice matters more than people expect: electronics sits around 5.5% while jewellery hits 14%. Commission is calculated on the sale price plus delivery, so free shipping isn't free.

Kaufland is €39.95/mo basic, or €59.95 if you want the backlink to your own shop. Commission 4-16% by category, and Poland gets preferential rates (roughly 4-12%) versus 7-16% for Germany, Austria, Czechia, Slovakia. One base fee covers all nine markets, which is the best part of their pricing.

What I got wrong third: assuming EPR was entirely on me

It partly isn't anymore. Kaufland now handles the bulk of the statutory EPR obligations on selected sales channels, including providing EPR numbers and filing volume reports. Worth checking which of your channels that covers before you go pay a compliance service, because I did and probably didn't need to for everything. Approval still takes two to six weeks, so start the account process early regardless.

What I got wrong fourth: tool shopping before understanding the requirements

Spent four days configuring BaseLinker before I understood what Allegro needed from a listing. Free to 100 orders, then $19/mo plus $0.19/order, 2,000+ integrations, deepest catalog available. The setup cost is manual category mapping and offer templates, and none of it made sense until I'd read Allegro's attribute rules. Should have done that first.

Others I looked at: M2E Cloud covers Kaufland but not Allegro, GMV-priced from free up to $1,000/mo in sales, then $39 to $5k and $79 to $20k. CedCommerce sells separate apps per marketplace at $19-49/mo each, fine for one channel, tedious at two. ChannelEngine covers both, sales-led pricing, customer list is Samsung and Unilever so you can guess the tier. Marqetir is what I run now, €249/mo Growth with a founders promo at €99, 12+ EU marketplaces and it rewrites content per marketplace rather than translating, though it launched in 2025, has no repricer, and 12 integrations against BaseLinker's 2,000 is a real gap if breadth matters to you.

What I'd do differently

Read the fee tables and category rates before setting prices, not after. Pick one marketplace and get it profitable before adding the second, adding both at once split my attention and neither got proper content for two months. Budget for a native speaker on your top SKUs regardless of tooling, because no tool has fully solved Polish commercial copy in my experience.

Happy to go deeper on any of it, especially the Kaufland side since a lot of the English-language guidance on it is out of date.