How e-commerce has developed in 2024
When the annual report E-barometern 2024 was presented, we can see an increase in e-commerce by 5% in Sweden. The first increase after two years of decline. The pharmacy industry accounts for an impressive growth of 20%. With each passing quarter, more and more industries crossed the line, which looks promising for a successful 2025.
The global e-commerce volume increased by 39%.
The top 3 favourite online stores are the same as last year – Apotea, Amazon and Zalando. Sellpy sails up to fourth place and reflects the increased interest in second hand and circular trade. According to the report, 25% buy second hand 1-2 times per month.
Sofia Hagelin, Head of Communications at Tradera (place 7), says that thanks to AI, it is now easier than ever to sell with Tradera, which can assist when creating ads. 80% of what is sold on Tradera is not clothing but a variety of different products. They also see great international interest, which has been helped by a weak SEK where you can find vintage bargains.
Veronica Fras, CMO at Adlibris (place 6), says that they have worked a lot on the customer journey. They have tested different shipping options at checkout. They have worked a lot on search – it should be easy to search and find. They feel that the mix of store and online works well for them and have expanded to include Adlibris Campus, which sells course literature to students.
Erik Wickman, CEO of Inet (ranked 12), speaks highly of their community where they live stream and have a chat channel on Discord. They have many loyal users and know that many new customers find them through existing satisfied customers.
Omni focus at Åhléns
Åhléns had a strategy of 80% e-commerce and 20% stores, but the change of ownership in 2022 overturned the strategy to the opposite. In parallel with the digital channels, the department stores would instead be prioritized with profitable growth. Åhléns sees that loyalty is increasing for online customers in locations where stores are established, there will be an interaction.
They have a new automated omni-warehouse that supplies both e-commerce and stores with goods. Sometimes a trade-off has to be made as to which channel should receive sought-after products. Some buy an item online if it is not available in the department store, but some choose instead to shop elsewhere when they want it directly.
During the Christmas shopping season, Åhléns had a discussion about, for example, a roll of gift paper that is 1 meter long. They felt that it is a perfect product to sell in department stores, but in e-commerce it poses various problems. The package then does not fit into a box but must be delivered to a agent or home, which becomes a more expensive shipping option for the company. These are discussions between the different departments that will work together to create the best possible offer for the entire company and not only the different business areas.
How should we respond to global competition?
As e-commerce sales increase in Sweden, international e-commerce packages also increase. In 2024, almost half of Swedish consumers shopped from foreign sites. In the EU, many investments are being made in regulations to reduce packaging and the like, and companies like Temu and Shein seem to be getting away with it. It is reported that 9,000 tons of goods are flown into Europe every day from Temu and Shein.
The panel with Bank Bergström, Nordic Nest, Ella Stemme, SmartaSaker and Nic Staeger discussed different ways to counter an unfair advantage for foreign companies:
- Establish new laws and regulations. When it comes to establishing new laws and regulations, you have to work quickly, which is not always possible in reality. It is also important to see how they are implemented so that it does not benefit those who can exploit loopholes. According to HUI Research, Swedish companies have calculated that over 40% of the price to consumers is related to compliance costs.
- Comply with laws and regulations. It does not help if we introduce laws and regulations if they are not followed and there are no consequences.
- The infrastructure must take responsibility. According to the new rules, Customs could quickly impose a high administrative cost for handling packages with a lower value to reduce the number of packages from China. It is also concerning when kickbacks or a quality seal are offered to customers who shop on some of these sites by Swedish companies.
- More information from the authorities. Product safety is an important part, how do you ensure that no one is harmed by these products that are flooding in, are they safe enough.
- Greater responsibility for private individuals who import. For companies that import, it is a complex process, we could work with a more complex process for private individuals as well. Some might do it once, but hesitate to do it more times if it takes too much time, is too difficult, or becomes too expensive in the end.
Changed approach to search optimization
Almost half of Gen Z's searches that are connected to brands, products and services are done directly on social platforms. This requires e-retailers to list and optimize search engines in a new way – in addition, you must have different strategies for different platforms.
From Google, Carl Wåreus says that they see that people now like to use longer search terms, they type their questions similar to as they speak to a greater extent. They want to get a better, more personal search result where you should understand the context behind the question. If you have given your permission to share other things that are happening in your life, you also want to have the most relevant search results possible. Image search with Google Lens where you can search for products using a photo. They have also launched Circle of Search where you can take a picture and circle what you want to search for, for example a pair of sunglasses or a pair of shoes as a part of an outfit. AI Overviews is used to answer slightly longer and more complex questions. It is currently launched in over 130 countries, but not in the EU yet.
Kicks does not see any decrease in sales when they see a decrease in Google Search nowadays. Their conclusion is that many have moved to social media which is very well suited for the beauty segment which is more visual. When they highlight their experts, it is very appreciated on the social platforms. They also make content that is created for the TikTok format.
The panel goes on to talk about how big tutorials have become and that it is well suited to showing how to use products, for example in beauty or software and technology.
In order to appear well on the AI-generated search engines, it is partly a technical part that the AI models should be able to find the information and partly the content part. The AI models try to understand the content they find and whether it is relevant. Here it is about creating good and relevant content to appear in these search results and source references. You can think of both text, sound and image and that it should be able to help the consumer in the best possible way.
Presentation of three future scenarios from the report E-barometern
PostNord, together with analysts at HUI, has developed three future scenarios for e-commerce 2025-2027 in Sweden.
- The perfect storm. In this scenario, e-commerce grows by a modest 2%. The economic recovery is taking a while, we are treading water for a while longer and discount retail remains strong.
- Gradual recovery. Here, e-commerce grows by 4-5%. In this scenario, we get a strengthened economy for households, the willingness to consume increases. More industries get started and this in turn benefits e-commerce.
- Rapid recovery. In this scenario, e-commerce increases by 5-8%. Households feel confident in the future and consume at a faster pace. Interest rates will fall a little more and we see more peace in the world. Here, online food can also take a big step forward.
The fact that e-commerce would not grow at all is not included in any of the scenarios. Although the panel agrees that the intermediate scenario is most likely, it is not impossible that we will achieve a rapid recovery in the future.
The Retail Profile – Elisabeth Peregi, KappAhl Group
Elisabeth Peregi, CEO of KappAhl Group, believes in the more optimistic future scenario of a rapid recovery for e-commerce given that our customer behaviour is becoming more and more digital.
KappAhl had a technical debt and a modest e-commerce share. Growth had stalled when Elisabeth Peregi became CEO of KappAhl Group in 2019. Her mission was to create future sustainable and profitable growth with strong brands.
They began to look at three areas that needed improvement:
- The store network – Where to have stores, how to locate them and how their customers move.
- The cash register system, CRM and e-commerce platform – These needed to be replaced and connected to offer customers a better and smoother shopping journey.
- The offering – Review what KappAhl should offer. Who the customers are and what they expect. They spoke to many customers and began to narrow down the target groups, how interested they are in fashion and where they are in life. They saw a great strength in the Newbie brand.
They began to clean up the range, look at pricing strategies and work with tonality and how customers are met both online and in stores. They are now building a larger logistics centre to be able to meet more markets and create more collaborations. Now, in principle, everything is sold through KappAhl’s channels, but they see enormous potential in selling their products through other partners. Elisabeth also says that they are looking at other brands that could fit into the KappAhl world.
If you want to watch the entire broadcast afterwards, you can do so at PostNord Retail Day.
