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~ DirectLink ~

NEW REPORT

FROM POSTNORD;

BETTER DAYS ARE AHEAD

FOR NORDIC E-COMMERCE

Text: Olof Källgren // Photos: DirectLink

From a general economic perspective, all Nordic countries faced some hardships throughout
2023. Inflation, high interest rates and low household demand highly affected the Nordic
retail markets during last year. Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark experienced a
negative retail growth. Consequently, all Nordic countries, except Norway, had a negative
e-commerce growth. Finland and Sweden had a yearly development of –2%, Denmark –1.9%
and Norway 0,0%.

s in most other European countries, the than the total retail market in all countries.
Nordic e-commerce markets peaked during
Athe pandemic. Since then, it has been Swedish online shopping behaviour
challenging to maintain sales growth and volumes Sweden has the highest recent online shopping frequency
in most product categories. The recession and the among the Nordic online consumers. Almost nine out of
aftermath of the pandemic have created a difficult ten Swedes have been shopping recently, and 88% do so
e-commerce climate; but brighter days seem to be every month. This has increased in the recent years. In a
on the way. The 2024 GDP prognosis is optimistic. similar study from 2019, 70% stated that they shopped
The recession will most likely end in Norway and every month. In the age span 18–29-year-old, 31% shop
in Sweden during 2024. Denmark never really faced online at least once a week, while 23% of 50-64-year-
a recession in 2023, and the Finnish economy is old do so. There are also some differences between
forecasted to recover in early 2025. genders. 30% of women in Sweden shop at least once a
There are optimistic signs from other markets, German week compared to 22% of the men. Clothing, footwear,
e-commerce for example grew by 2.6% during the first and beauty products accounts for more than half of the
quarter of 2024. A recently published study from PostNord e-commerce purchases. Since 2019, the interest in buying
provides a picture of the Nordic online consumer´s books and media online has decreased.
behaviour and preferences in the spring of 2024.
Swedish cross-border purchases outside the Nordics
Nordic consumers are highly digital While nearby countries like Germany and the UK are
The consumers are digitally savvy and in all Nordic popular markets to buy from, most international purchases
countries, at least 95% of the population has access to from Swedish consumers are made from China. 37%
internet at home. Thereby it is only natural that there is bought goods from China in the past twelve months.
also a high degree of online shoppers in these countries. In 2019 Germany was the most popular country, and
82% of the northerners have shopped online in the past 30 China was in third place. When it comes to international
days and out of those, 83% shop at least monthly. Among marketplaces, Amazon, Zalando and Temu are the most
the countries, Sweden is by far the most popular country to popular ones for Swedish shoppers. Preferences vary with
shop from within the Nordics. In Sweden, Denmark is the age since 46% of 18–29-year-olds bought something from
Nordic country which is the most popular to shop from. Zalando in the last three months. Temu is however the
The Nordic e-commerce market has grown rapidly the most popular marketplace for 50-64-year-olds, from which
past decade. Since 2015, it has had a much stronger growth 34% bought something the last three months.

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