Sweden: online grocery market grows 21.9%

The Swedish grocery trade market showed growth over the full year 2019. This can be concluded from the monthly published Swedish Grocery Index. Compared to a year before, all months except for March showed a positive growth percentage compared to the year prior. The Grocery Index is a monthly report from the Swedish Grocery Store, which accounts for a large part of the grocery sales development in physical stores and online. 

Sales in online and offline grocery trade increased with 3.0% in December, compared to the same period in 2018. Especially the online sales of groceries saw an increase. Compared to 2018, the online grocery market saw a 23.8% growth in December. This is a lot more than the traditional in-store sales, which grew just 2.7%.

E-commerce makes Swedish grocery market grow

During the full year of 2019, growth saw a total of 3.1% growth, largely generated through increased online shopping. 2019 saw a total increase of 2.8% in-store retail. The Swedish online grocery market grew by 21.9%. Daniel Liljeberg, Business Policy Manager at Swedish Grocery, comments: "The grocery trade is stable, albeit at a slightly lower rate than the population increase plus inflation. The krona weakened by about 2% against the euro in 2019, which is important for the rate of increase as the retail trade is heavily dependent on imports."