Sweden

Amazon is seen as a threat by almost half of Nordic online retailers. On the other hand, over a quarter of ecommerce players see Amazon entering the Nordic market as an opportunity. With Amazon's arrival, local retailers can use the established marketplace to sell their products to more consumers.

Eko, a Swedish chain of hypermarkets owned by Bergendahls, will not only expand its business by opening new physical stores, it also entered a new market online. The company has launched its first ecommerce platform, called E by Night, which sells sex toys and related products online.

Fast-growing fashion brand Chiquelle is ready for the new fashion season and will introduce an augmented reality app to its customers in Europe. Together with tech company Figuratic, Chiquelle will launch a virtual shopping experience based on AR and 3D technologies.

Swedish postal service PostNord has signed a deal with Wish, so customers will no longer have to pay VAT or handling fees upon the arrival of parcels to Sweden. Instead, shoppers will now be charged VAT at the point of purchase. As a result, Swedish customers will get their order faster than before.

Afound, H&M's newest retail brand, has announced that it will open its online store on 14 June. On that day, the outlet brand will also open the doors of its physical store in Stockholm. Two days later, the Malmö store will open.

PayPal has signed an agreement to acquire iZettle, a Swedish fintech company that's aimed at small businesses. PayPal will pay 2.2 billion euros for iZettle, which makes it the biggest acquisition of PayPal ever.

Fintech company iZettle has launched its own ecommerce software solution. iZettle E-commerce is meant for current iZettle customers that want to sell their products online and for new customers to the Swedish company.

Online optician Mister Spex continues to expand its multichannel approach across Europe and now offers its partner optician program also in Sweden. The Scandinavian country is the fifth market in Europe where customers have access to services as free eye tests and eyewear adjustments through partnering opticians.

The ecommerce industry in the Nordics (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland) was worth 209,6 billion Swedish kronor, which corresponds to over 20.6 billion euros, last year. Almost forty percent of the total Nordic ecommerce revenue was generated in Sweden.

Ecommerce in Sweden has increased by almost 16 percent last year. The online retail industry in this Scandinavian country was worth about 67 billion Swedish kronor, or 6.7 billion euros, which is just below the forecast of 67.7 billion kronor.

Buying cheap products online from Chinese ecommerce websites is very popular in Sweden. Every day around 150,000 packages from websites like Alibaba and Wish arrive at Stockholm Arlanda Airport. Until now, customers didn't have to pay taxes on these purchases, but that's about to change. And, on top of that, PostNord will also charge a huge administration fee per package.

NA-KD, a Swedish fashion retailer, has raised 45 million dollar (36.8 million euros) in Series B funding. NA-KD wants to use the money to accelerate the company's growth and to further expand its business globally. The Swedish startup has plans to launch 9 localized websites in the coming months.

Webgallerian, an online marketplace from Sweden, has relaunched this year. The goal is still the same: to bring together hundreds of online stores under one single roof and to become the biggest online marketplace in the Nordic region.

Swedish fashion retailer H&M is secretly working on a new project, which aims to sell branded clothes online at discount prices. For now, the project has been dubbed P12 and it's expected to launch somewhere in April.

42 percent of consumers from France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden have used click & collect in the past twelve months. And one in four Europeans who used click & collect bought another product in-store while they were picking up their online order.