5 reasons Why Sweden is Leading the European eCommerce Industry
In the past couple of years their has been an increase in Swedish eCommerce as a result of the pandemic. In an interview, Per Ljungberg, the chief executive officer at Svensk Digital Handel, mentioned that three out of four people in Sweden didn’t shop online ever before March 2020. However, experts suggest that the new first-time consumers are here to stay resulting in a growing eCommerce sector post-pandemic.
Sweden’s strength in the e-commerce industry
In the global market, not just after the covid pandemic broke in, but for decades, Sweden has been a critical player in ecommerce software solutions. Sweden is one of the wealthiest countries in Europe and accounts for 8.7% of the total annual retail sales in Europe.
During the pandemic, people and institutions worldwide experienced a drastic shift. Psychical retailers had to face many challenges due to global lockdown. Meanwhile, there was a change in consumers’ buying behavior. A survey showed that adults aged 18 to 79 in Sweden buy goods via ecommerce software at least once a month. As a result, ecommerce sales in Sweden increased by 16%.
5 reasons for the Swedish e-commerce success
The Swedish eCommerce success comes a result of various factors. We tried to analyze the success of the Swedish eCommerce sector and found these five dominant reasons.
- The balance Between Online & Offline Shopping trends: Although the world is technically advancing through smartphones, easy internet access, online shopping, and social media, physical shopping is still prominent and, in fact, complements the growing online shopping trend. Sweden has maintained a good balance between both.
- Convenience: Since Sweden located centrally in Northern Europe, it has turned out to be a hotspot for the ecommerce software industry because of its logistic convenience.
- Globalization & Competition: Since there is excellent scope in the ecommerce sector, the competition bar is raised proportionally too. Whoever steps in the market has to face resistance from the existing pioneers like Sweden. Sweden has always been technically and digitally literate giving the swedish eCommerce industry an extra edge.
- Pandemic & Work From Home Culture: Covid 19 caused much turbulence in everyone’s life and changed the lifestyle of many people. However, this is not the exact case with people living in Sweden. Although people living in Sweden faced unpleasant circumstances too, the Swedish economy was stabilized due to its growing culture of online purchasing of goods.
- Launch of Amazon.se: If we talk about various ecommerce software available to the public of Sweden, Amazon.se would undoubtedly be ranked somewhere in the top list. According to Alex Ootes, Vice President of European Expansion for Europe, the company’s investment in Amazon.se has helped them to offer Swedish consumers more than 150 million products, including goods and services from the local Swedish businesses.
Insights of the Swedish Buyers’ Trend
In Sweden, the eCommerce sales survey by Statista revealed the following as the categories of goods and products that the people of Sweden spend most of their capital on:
- Fashion
- Electronics & Media
- Toys, Hobby & DIY
- Furniture
- Food & Personal car
Preferred payment methods in Sweden
Cards are the most popular means of online payment in Sweden, accounting for 38% of all transactions. In Sweden there are 1.1 debit cards per head and 0.7 credit cards per capita, making it a standard payment method for shops. Bank transfers are becoming more widely used and may overtake credit cards as the most popular payment method by 2023. Sweden’s 100% bank account penetration and the rise of Swish, a mobile payment app run by Sweden’s top banks, can explain this. Therefore the digitization in Sweden is heading to its peak with exponential growth.
In conclusion, the e-commerce environement will remain strong in the coming years, too. Sweden is progressing well in the eCommerce business and has become a leader in the European market in 2021, and looking forward; it appears that it can lead the future years in eCommerce as well.
