Online shopping accounts for over 90% of the total, and the Nordic market has great potential

Online shopping is very common in Northern Europe, but research shows that the region still has potential for growth. In 2021, Finland ranked first in the European Commission's Digital and Social Index DESI , which means that Finland is considered the most digitally mature economy in the EU.

Other Nordic markets also rank high in the index , with the proportion of the population shopping online exceeding 90% in all Nordic countries . PostNord and Direct Lin released the European E-commerce Report 2021, in which many similarities can be seen in the Nordic countries in terms of e-commerce consumer behavior and preferences.

The Nordic countries have many strong domestic brands, and large e-commerce platforms were established later in the Nordics than in many other European countries. The number of consumers shopping on e-commerce platforms is growing, but it is still far lower than in countries such as Italy, the UK, Spain and Germany.

Amazon has played a major role in several European countries over the years, but has so far only established itself in its native Sweden in the Nordic region.

Online consumers in the Nordic countries prefer to buy more or less the same product categories online. In Denmark and Finland , the top three categories are clothing and footwear, home electronics and cosmetics and skin care products ; in Norway, the top three are clothing and footwear, cosmetics and skin care products, and pharmaceuticals . Sweden is an exception, where clothing and footwear are not the top categories.

Nordic consumers prefer slightly different payment methods for their online purchases. Debit or credit cards are the most popular payment methods in Denmark, Norway and Finland , while in Sweden, invoices are still the most popular payment method. On the other hand, mobile applications are rapidly gaining popularity in the Nordic countries.

Over the past few years, the use of mobile phones when shopping online has gone from a niche phenomenon to mainstream. The differences in mobile usage between the European countries studied in the report have levelled out, with more than 70% of respondents using their mobile phones for e-commerce.

There are also differences in delivery preferences across countries. Most consumers prefer to have their online purchases delivered to their homes , and in Sweden and Norway, consumers prefer to have their orders delivered to a mailbox when possible and collected from a service point. In Finland, consumers prefer to collect their orders from a parcel locker , a delivery method that is also growing steadily in Northern Europe .

Although the market is not as big as that of big countries like the UK and Germany, the potential of the Nordic market is also worth paying attention to.

Northern Europe

E-commerce

Online shopping