Pickup point vs home delivery in Poland: 2026 prices

Poland is the textbook pickup country: InPost alone has about 30,000 lockers there, and a checkout without a paczkomat option looks foreign. That does not mean the locker is automatically the right default for your shop. The rate differs a lot between the four networks, the collection windows are short, and the door is cheaper than most foreign shops assume.

This article compares point and door per carrier with prices we measured ourselves, then sets out what goes wrong on each side and which default fits which product. It is the Polish part of pickup point vs home delivery in Europe.

How much cheaper is a pickup point in Poland? #

We compared the same carrier and the same parcel size, once to a point or locker and once to the door. The prices come from our shipping options for parcels sent inside Poland, measured on 29 September 2026. They include our flat €0.85 platform fee, which is the same on both sides, so the gap is the carrier’s. Złoty prices are converted at the ECB rate of that day (€1 = zł 4.3653).

Three things stand out. First, only DPD has a real gap: its door price is about two thirds higher than its point price. Second, Poczta Polska prices point and door almost the same, so with the national post the door is nearly free. Third, InPost, the network customers know best, was the most expensive of the four for both sizes.

The carrier rate alone, without our fee, is low across the board: the cheapest domestic 2 kg rate in Poland was €2.35 on the European shipping rates index of 26 September 2026, one of the lowest in the EU. That is the reason local stock pays off in Poland; the reasoning is in shipping to Poland without a Polish warehouse.

Paczkomat, pickup point or courier: what do Polish customers choose? #

InPost has about 30,000 Paczkomat lockers in Poland, according to a trade report of September 2026. For a Polish customer the locker is the default: they pick one at checkout, get a code on their phone and collect whenever they pass, day or night. The other networks copy the model: ORLEN Paczka puts points and machines at ORLEN petrol stations and partner shops, DPD has Pickup points and Pickup Station machines, and Poczta Polska delivers to post offices, Pocztex points and its own machines.

Home delivery is not unusual, it is simply not the first choice for small parcels. It is normal for large and heavy items, for customers without a locker nearby, and for business addresses where someone is always in.

What should a foreign shop set as the default in Poland? #

The table gives a clear order. The question is how much you want to pay for familiarity.

• Default for small parcels: a point. DPD Pickup and Poczta Polska points were the cheapest services we measured, at about zł 14.50 to zł 14.90. The customer still collects locally; they just do not see the InPost logo.
• Offer InPost where the checkout shows carriers by name. It cost zł 2.97 (€0.68) more than DPD’s point for a small parcel. For many Polish customers the paczkomat is a reason to order at all, and that is worth more than 68 cents on an order of any real value.
• Door: use Poczta Polska, not DPD. At zł 15.37 the post’s home delivery cost less than an InPost locker and zł 8.94 less than DPD to the door.
• Large parcels: DPD to the door. It was the only service for 10–30 kg, and points and lockers refuse those sizes anyway.

What happens when a Polish customer does not collect? #

This is the real cost of the point in Poland. The collection windows are short, and when they end the parcel goes back to the sender. With local stock the sender is your AirPost sender, so the item returns to your stock in Poland, but you have paid for a label that delivered nothing and your customer usually still wants the item.

Home delivery fails differently. The courier cannot hand over the parcel, leaves a notice or redirects it to a nearby point, and the collection clock above starts from there. The cost of that second step is in the carrier’s door price, which is why DPD’s door is so much dearer than its point.

Two habits keep uncollected parcels low. Put the collection window in your shipping confirmation (“collect within 48 hours”). And for expensive items, where one returned parcel eats the saving of dozens of cheap labels, send to the door with Poczta Polska: the extra cost was under zł 1.

How to set point or door with AirPost in Poland #

With local fulfilment through AirPost, a verified person in Poland holds a batch of your stock and ships each order as a domestic parcel. You pay the label, the fee you agree with your sender, and our €0.85 platform fee per parcel. No subscription, no storage costs.

1. 1

   Find a sender in Poland

   On /en/senders. Check which of the four networks they offer; a sender who ticked InPost and Poczta Polska covers both the familiar locker and the cheapest door.

2. 2

   Choose the service per product

   Point or locker for small, cheap items; the door for expensive or large ones. Every order for that product and country follows the choice.

3. 3

   Send the orders

   In the chat with address and size, or automatically from Shopify through the Airpost Order Link app. Your sender only sees the full address once they take the order.

4. 4

   Handle what comes back

   A parcel nobody collected returns to your sender, because they are the sender on the label. A customer return is reported by your sender in the chat with five photos; you decide what happens to it, and their return price is charged only when you accept.

The return side is set out in full in returns without a warehouse, and what to do when a parcel goes missing in parcel lost or damaged: what to do as a shop.