Ecommerce in the Nordics: €21.9 billion in 2018

The ecommerce industry in the Nordic countries was worth 230.2 billion Swedish kronor, or 21.87 billion euros, in 2018. The biggest share of this online turnover comes from Sweden, which also has the highest proportion of people shopping online.

This is shown by the annual ecommerce report [pdf] by Postnord. This year’s theme is artificial intelligence, but the postal agency of course also shared more general statistics about ecommerce in the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.

61% of Nordic consumers shopped online

During an average month in 2018, 61 percent of the northerners bought goods online. Ten years ago, this share was only 21 percent. And 15.9 percent of the ecommerce consumption in the Nordics consisted of purchases from outside this part of Europe.

The estimated amount per person spent online in an average month (in Swedish kronor):

The share of the population that shops online:

Popular online product categories in the Nordics

In the Nordics, the most popular product categories to buy online are clothing & shoes (36 percent), consumer electronics (25 percent), media (25 percent) and beauty & health (22 percent).

Cross-border ecommerce in the Nordics

When Nordic consumers shop online cross-border, they mostly buy do this at online shops in the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany and China. According to the survey, 14 percent of Danish consumers, 13 percent of Norwegian consumers and 23 percent of Finnish consumers shop online at ecommerce websites located in Sweden.

29 percent of Nordic consumers shop online cross-border

It’s mostly consumers from Finland that like to shop abroad. During the month prior to the survey, 38 percent of Finnish consumers shopped cross-border, while 34 percent of Norwegians, 27 percent of Danes and 18 percent of Swedes did so. On average, 29 percent of consumers in the Nordics shopped abroad.

The ecommerce consumption in the Nordics was calculated based on the consumers’ answers to the question “How much money do you think you spent on buying goods online in the last month”. As Postnord notes: “Due to the fact the results are based on the consumers’ own consumption estimated, and that the calculation method has been refined over time, comparisons with previous reports should be made with great caution.”