In Poland, price overtakes quality among shopping criteria — RMF24

In Poland, price has become the main criterion when choosing products: 88.5% of respondents named it the most important factor. Quality ranked second at 76.1%. This is according to the results of a study reported by RMF24.

Changing consumer priorities

As recently as 2024, quality was more important than price for 87.3% of those surveyed, while 76.4% named price as a priority. In the latest measurement, price surpassed quality by 12.4 percentage points. Experts link this change to the rising cost of living and inflation, which are forcing consumers to seek savings.

Price is most important for people with an income of less than 2,000 zlotys: 90.2% of this group named it a key criterion, compared with 62.3% for quality. Among respondents with incomes above 10,000 zlotys, both factors are equally important, at 82.1% each.

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Willingness to pay extra is declining

In 2026, 59.2% of respondents said they were willing to pay more for better quality, compared with 82.9% two years earlier. Among people with the lowest incomes, 37.7% are willing to pay extra for a higher-quality product, while among those earning more than 10,000 zlotys, the figure is 73.1%.

At the same time, 82.8% of survey participants believe that Polish products should be chosen whenever possible. However, the origin of a product ranked only third among purchasing criteria, cited by 24.4% of respondents. The study was conducted on September 16–19, 2026, using the CAWI method on a representative sample of 1,010 adult Poles.