Sweden

Klarna has raised an amount of 650 million dollars, which corresponds to roughly 547 million euros. With this fresh funding, the Swedish payments company is now valued at around 8.9 billion euros. This makes Klarna the largest fintech unicorn in Europe.

Swedish startup Brink has raised 1 million dollars (844,000 euros) to further develop its ecommerce platform. The money was raised in a first investment round, ahead of the company's launch. Over the past two years, Brink has operated in stealth mode building a headless ecommerce platform with open APIs.

Amazon Sweden will probably open its digital doors next year. The upcoming launch of a dedicated Amazon website in Sweden has now been officially announced. It would be the first time Amazon launches in a Nordic country.

SwipBox has reached every part of Scandinavia. Because after the summer, PostNord Sweden will test the parcel lockers in Stockholm. The Danish company is now active in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

Zalando has announced the expansion of its Connected Retail program to three new markets in Europe. Retailers based in Poland, Sweden and Spain will be able to connect their inventory to the online Zalando platform.

More and more consumers in Europe are buying fresh food products online. Although many shoppers still tend to buy a lower volume online than they do-instore. The only exception seems to be the United Kingdom, where 42 percent buys more online than in-store and 32% percent buy less online.

Several ICA stores in Sweden have been forced to stop its ecommerce activities, after consumers have been hoarding like crazy. Mainly in the Stockholm area, some ICA stores have completely or partially stopped the opportunity to pick up orders in stores.

Ecommerce in Sweden has showed double-digit growth last year. The online retail industry increased by 13 percent and was worth 87 billion Swedish kronor (8.24 billion euros) at the end of that year.

Sales in the grocery trade in Sweden increased by 3.1 percent during the full year 2019. The fastest growth was noticeable in the ecommerce, as store sales increased by 2.8 percent, while ecommerce grew 21.9 percent.

Qliro Group, a Nordic ecommerce group that currently consists of marketplace CDON, payments company Qliro and fashion retailer Nelly.com, is transforming. CDON will move out and become an independent company, while Nelly will remain. As a result, Qliro Group will be renamed Nelly Group.

Flowbox, a Swedish startup focused on user-generated content, has raised 7.5 million euros from Viking Venture, a leading software investor from the Nordics. With the money, Flowbox wants to further expand in Europe.

Ecommerce continues to drive growth for PostNord. The Swedish logistics group delivered just over 50 million parcels in the fourth quarter of 2019. And for the full year, B2C volumes increased by 10 percent compared to the year before.

Fashion brand Chiquelle is moving its warehouse operations. Currently these are located in Arlandastad, outside Stockholm, but after the Christmas holidays, the Swedish company will move its warehouse to the Netherlands.

Same-day-delivery is an increasingly popular method of delivery for online orders. But such a service costs money, of course. In Sweden, it seems that four in ten consumers don't want to pay a thing for same-day-delivery.

Omoda, a Dutch omnichannel shoe retailer, is expanding in Europe. After it opened online stores in countries nearby, the company is now ready to expand to Scandinavia. This year, an online store in Denmark will open and next year, Sweden, Norway and Finland are next.