Written by Suvi Tikkanen - Oct 2, 2017
Paytrail, an online payment provider, has conducted an extensive survey with Dibs, also a part of the Nets family, on Nordic consumers’ attitudes towards e-commerce. The survey, conducted annually for more than 10 years, has served as a significant source of information on e-commerce in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. For the first time, Finland is also a part of the survey.
E-commerce in the Nordics is increasing rapidly. However, there are clear differences between the Nordic countries in how often consumers buy online, how items are purchased and whether domestic or foreign online stores are favored.
Finns buy less online than our neighbors
Finns buy approximately 5.51 times from online stores in a three-month period. Swedes buy 6.97 times; Danes buy 6.39 times and Norwegians 6.31 times according to the survey. Sweden is the leading the Nordic countries with an e-commerce market of 11.4 billion euros. The market in Denmark is almost as big with 11.3 billion euros, followed by Norway with 10.9 billion euros and Finland with 8.5 billion euros.
The Finns and the Norwegians buy the most from foreign web shops; more than half (54%) made purchases from foreign web shops within the past three months. Less than 40% of the Swedes, and 45% of the Danes are shopping outside their home country.
The biggest differences between the Nordic countries are in payment habits
The clearest differences can be seen in how consumers pay for their online shopping. Finns are very different from the rest of the Nordics in this respect, as 76% of us paid for our online shopping via online banking. The next highest percentage was card payments (56%) and third was by invoice (33%).
In Sweden, card payments dominate online shopping with 83%. The next most popular methods were by invoice (49%) and online banking (48%). In Norway, cards were the most popular method (85%), PayPal was second (43%) and the third most used method was invoice. The Danish market was dominated by two clear payment options – card payments (94%) and MobilePay (37%), which has quickly increased in popularity in Denmark.
Use of mobile devices and mobile applications is a rising trend
In all Nordic countries, a common feature of respondents was the rapid expansion of mobile devices through online purchases and the preference for the most enjoyable shopping experience. 40% of Finns had made purchases in web shops via a mobile device within the past three months, while in other Nordic countries mobile devices were used among more than half of the respondents.
Migrating to mobile devices also leads to the need to implement user-friendly mobile applications from online stores. When asked about mobile payment methods, awareness of different mobile payment options has also increased significantly, although their use is still relatively low.
For more information, contact
Markus Laurio, CEO, Paytrail, +358 40 840 3754, markus.laurio@paytrail.com
Suvi Tikkanen, Marketing Director, Paytrail, +358 40 562 8283, suvi.tikkanen@paytrail.com
About Paytrail
Paytrail is a Finnish payment service supplier established in 2007. The company employs more than 50 experts, and its headquarters are in Jyväskylä, Finland. Paytrail handles transactions for more than 10,000 web shops and services. Thus far, Paytrail’s online payment service has been used to purchase more than two billion euros worth of products and services. Paytrail is a part of the Nets Group.
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