Norway

DHL has joined forces with the Finnish postal operator Posti and Bring, a subsidiary of Norwegian postal operator Posten Norge. Together they offer a B2C infrastructure for parcel deliveries across Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltic states. With 6,500 parcel shops and parcel stations across seven countries it will be the largest parcel network in northern Europe.

Consumers in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark have purchased goods online worth a total of 17.39 billion euros in 2015. That's an increase of around 15 percent compared to the year before. Four out of ten Nordic residents bought goods online from foreign websites, spending a total of about 4.3 billion euros across the border.

Consignor, a delivery management software company founded in the Nordics, has entered the British market. In the UK, it wants to help companies to streamline their shipping process. The expansion is the result of an increasing demand from customers and partners to support that market in the platform.

Bring, a Nordic post and logistics company, is testing RFID in its parcel labels and invited, among others, ecommerce company Extra Optical to participate in the pilot project. Both parties are very happy with the results so far, as it increased traceability, fastened delivery and decreased the number of customer service inquiries.

Komplett, an all-round ecommerce company from Norway, wants to further increase its footprint in Scandinavia. After recently opening an online pharmacy, the ecommerce company has now revealed plans of investments in online groceries, as well as a marketplace for other retailers to sell their products on.

If your shipments are damaged or lost during transport, who covers the loss? One might think the carrier covers the full value of the shipment, but this is far from the truth. And also, it depends on in which country the shipment takes place, how big your loss as a retailer will be.

Ecommerce platform Groupon has closed its operations immediately in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. This decision follows after its business has been in decline for months now. Things don't look so swell for Groupon, which has said goodbye to 1,100 employees and exited other international markets recently.

Consumers in the Nordic countries expect to conduct the majority of Christmas shopping offline. But Sweden is the notable exception, as a majority of consumers believe they will shop their gifts mostly online. In total, more than 80 percent of Nordic consumers will shop online this Christmas and almost a quarter of the Christmas shopping will be mobile.

Consumers in the Nordic region made online purchases for 4.29 billion euros during the second quarter of this year. This is an increase of more than 800 million euros or 23 percent compared to the same period last year. Domestic commerce in each respective country grew even harder, by 29 percent.

PostNord's net sales decreased by 2% during the first half of this year. While mail volumes declined by a total of 8%, parcel volumes however increased by 13%, with ecommerce related B2C parcel volumes rising even 17%. But on net sales level, the parcel volumes can't fully compensate for the declining mail volumes, the postal company says.

Sweden is the best country in Scandinavia when it comes to omnichannel retail, a new study shows. However, there are still plenty of retailers who are defined as omnichannel laggards. Especially in the furniture and interior industry, companies haven't fully embraced an omnichannel strategy, while in consumer electronics omnichannel is more common.

Swedish online retailer Adlibris no longer just sells books via its website, as it launched an extended range of completely new categories, both on its Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish websites. The expansion was announced earlier this year, but as of today consumers now also can shop at Adlibris for DIY & crafts items, kids & toys products and office supplies.

The Nordic Delivery Conference in Copenhagen was the setting for a debate between four big European couriers. Bring, DPD UK, PostNord and DHL discussed how delivery can be used as a competitive advantage. Here's what they said.

Consumers in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark shopped online for a total of 3.89 billion euros during the first three months of this year. Ecommerce increased by 7 percent compared with last year, although the Norwegian ecommerce showed some negative development. Nordic consumers are increasingly valuing the power of the recipient and want to choose the delivery method of the items they bought online.

Ecommerce company Stylight is branching out further in the European market and is now available in 14 countries. As of this week, Stylight is there for customers in Belgium and Norway. The fashion discovery website thinks opening up two new ecommerce sites is 'just another logical step of their expansion strategy'.