Sweden

At least 83 percent of Nordic consumers shop online monthly, according to a new report. Cross-border shopping is becoming more common in these countries. In the last twelve months, 76 percent of consumers in the Nordics purchased products abroad.

Swedish-Danish postal Group PostNord has brought together all of its different international operations as one business unit, under joint management. By doing this, the company wants to strengthen its market leadership.

E-commerce Park of Sweden, an incubator based in Helsingborg, is launching a parallel program to its existing incubator. With the new program, it will help companies with business models focused on sustainability in their ecommerce efforts.

Dutch fulfillment company Salesupply is expanding its global network again. It is opening fulfillment centers in Sweden and Denmark. The company wants to make selling cross-border to these countries easier for online merchants.

Online net sales in Sweden reached 11.75 billion euros last year. This is a slight decrease, of 2 percent, compared to a year earlier when net sales reached 12 billion euros. However, it seems that annual net sales in the country are stabilizing.

Swedish online seller of caps and hats, Hatstore, is building a new office and warehouse. The new warehouse will be 5,000 square meters in size. The company’s logistics operations will be expanded, with 43 new picking robots, 12 gates and 40,000 boxes.

Online supplier of prefabricated wooden buildings, Pineca, is launching an online store in Sweden. It is the company’s third expansion in Europe in the last 12 months. It already has plans for a future expansion to Austria.

Swedish Logent Group has signed an agreement for a majority stake in Misi. The acquisition of this Dutch fulfilment company is expected to be completed next month. It is unknown how much money Logent paid for the majority stake.

Swedish parcel delivery services Instabox and Budbee are announcing a merger. Together, they will continue under a new holding: Instabee. The new company is valued at 1.7 billion euros.

Apotekamo, the online pharmacy from Sweden, has raised 2.5 million euros in funding. The company will use the money for geographical expansion, marketing activities and the platform's logistics solution. The startup wants to become the leading pharmacy in Southeast Europe.

Payment service Klarna has closed 800 million dollars in funding. During the investment round, the company’s valuation dropped even lower with 85 percent. CEO Sebastian Siemiatowski berates ‘the steepest drop in global stock markets in over fifty years’.

Swedish fintech Klarna wants to raise 1 billion dollars (over 900 million euros) from investors. The company is the European market leader for ‘buy now, pay later’ services. However, it has been valued 30 percent lower and has since announced layoffs.

Last-mile delivery scale-up Budbee has raised 40 million euros in an investment round. The company is now valued at 700 million euros. The capital injection will mainly be used to expand its network of parcel lockers.

Ecommerce aggregator eBrands has raised 30 million dollars (29 million euros) in a new funding round. The Finnish company will use the funds for increased acquisition and international expansion. To date, eBrands has raised close to 50 million euros.

Royal Design Group, the Swedish interior design company, has acquired Danish design retailer AndLight. With the takeover, Royal Design enters the lighting segment. AndLight currently operates in no less than 17 markets across Europe.