Ecommerce Finland grows 8.7% to €10.5bn

The ecommerce industry in Finland grew nearly 9% last year. Finnish consumers bought online goods and services worth 10.5 billion euros. So far, in three years the Finnish ecommerce market has increased by almost a fifth.

These statistics are based on a consumer survey, based on interviews of about 13.000 consumers, conducted by TNS, the Finnish Commerce Federation and Asiakkuusmarkkinointiliiton Verkkokauppatilaston (yeah, we copy-pasted that). The report [pdf] says the whole ecommerce industry grew by 8.7%, but when we only take a look at sales of goods purchased online (so ex. online services), that growth is 11%.

Popular product categories in Finland
Among the strongest growing product categories are alcohol, medicines and pay-tv services. Computer and console games were also very popular last year, as it saw its sales rose by more than 60%. Sales of movie and music downloads grew by nearly 40%. This can be explained by the fact international media services are getting more and more popular in Finland. “The Finnish people have been excited about on-demand TV services. For example, Netflix saw its number of consumers more than doubled“, says Ville Wikström, executive vice president at TNS Gallup.

Tourism, consumer electronics and gambling are the three most popular product categories. The first takes up 36% of all online sales in Finland last year. Negative growth rates were to be found in sales of cars (new or used), magazines, CD’s and photo products.

In Finland, the number of online consumers is growing strongly. There were only 349,000 Finnish online shoppers in 1999, but that number is now ten times bigger, as there are 3,247,000 people in Finland who bought something online this year.

Finnish ecommerce in relation to Europe
The Finnish online shoppers spent on average more than 1,900 euros last year. This is more than the European average of just under 1,600 euros. When looking at the position of Finland in Northern Europe, the country takes a fourth place, under Denmark, Sweden and Norway.