Through November 12, 2026, Poland's market leader Biedronka has been running Biek, a dedicated app for online and quick-commerce delivery, joining Zabka's Jush app that has operated since 2021. The move answers a hidden cost in the quick-commerce partnerships that promised European retailers a fast lane to rapid delivery. The European quick-commerce market is now estimated at almost 9 billion euros in 2026. For brand and retail teams, the shift signals something specific: when a retailer builds its own app, it is buying back the point-of-sale data that platform partnerships had quietly taken away.
Why a partnership stops looking like a shortcut
Most retailers entered rapid delivery through platform operators, and in Poland Glovo alone is partnered with five of the ten largest retailers in the market. The problem is that many of those partnerships struggle to turn a profit. Last-mile delivery is expensive even when a logistics partner executes it, and the cost squeezes margins that were already thin. That would be tolerable if the retailer at least kept its customer, but it often does not.
The platform that competes with its own partner
A second, less obvious risk is that quick-commerce platforms frequently sell their own grocery ranges. Wolt, for example, offers its Wolt Market range sourced directly from suppliers and wholesalers while being partnered with several major retailers. Many platforms then prioritize their native offerings in-app, which creates uneven competition for the physical retailer that is nominally a partner. The retailer funds the relationship and then competes against the platform inside the same interface.
What a native app actually buys back
Neither Zabka nor Biedronka operates delivery in-house; both use logistics partners. The native app is not primarily a cost play, which is why the move is easy to misread. Its real value is ownership of the point of sale. When a retailer sells through a partner platform, it loses the shopper-choice data that tells it what is being bought together, when, and by whom. A native app reclaims that data and links it to the retailer's digital loyalty scheme, tracking shoppers across physical, online and quick-commerce touchpoints.
What the data buys beyond the delivery
The reclaimed point-of-sale data feeds two things that matter more than the delivery itself. The first is loyalty: keeping a shopper inside the retailer's ecosystem instead of pushing them toward a competitor's offer. The second is retail media. Both Zabka and Biedronka are building targeted digital retail media networks, and quick-commerce insight makes that targeting sharper across channels. The revenue from retail media then helps absorb the cost of the quick-commerce operation itself.
For brands, this is a meaningful shift in where advertising and promotion dollars land. A retailer that owns its quick-commerce data can sell a brand better targeting than a platform that treats the retailer as one more partner. The native app becomes another touchpoint for campaigns, and the brand that understands this early gets a cleaner read on what actually drives a quick-commerce basket.
| Model | Who owns the data | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Platform partnership | Platform | Fast scale, lost shopper insight |
| Native delivery app | Retailer | Data and loyalty, higher complexity |
| Hybrid approach | Split | Coverage plus partial insight |
The market trend toward retailer-owned apps does not erase the core profitability problem that native apps alone cannot solve, and consumer demand remains the ultimate test. Quick-commerce remains expensive, and a fragmented, saturated market may not reward a third or fourth app. But for a brand, the strategic signal is what matters: the balance of data ownership in European quick commerce is shifting back toward retailers, and that reshapes where listing and promotion decisions actually get made.
FAQ
Why would a retailer build its own delivery app instead of using a platform?
To reclaim the point-of-sale data that platform partnerships take away. A native app tracks shopper choices across physical, online and quick-commerce touchpoints, links them to loyalty schemes, and feeds the retailer's retail media network. It is a data play, not a cost play.
Does a native app make quick commerce profitable?
Not inherently. Biedronka and Zabka both use logistics partners and still face high last-mile costs. The apps improve data ownership and loyalty, but the underlying economics of rapid delivery remain difficult.
How does this affect brands selling through Polish retailers?
It shifts where promotion and advertising decisions get made. A retailer that owns quick-commerce data can offer sharper targeting and a cleaner read on basket drivers, which changes the value of a brand's trade and media investment.
Is the European quick-commerce market still growing?
The European market is estimated at almost 9 billion euros in 2026 and continues to build scale and penetration, but the path to profitability for individual operators and retailers remains unresolved.
