The inhabitants of Finland have long insisted that Santa Claus originally comes from Finland, and that he lives a bit outside the town of Rovaniemi in the northern part of the country. They are so convinced of this fact, that they have built an entire Santa village that is visited by tens of thousands of people from all over the world every year. Coming there to spend some time with the real Santa.

Apart from this fact, Finland is an interesting country also from other perspectives, not least when it comes to e-commerce. Finland has historically lagged somewhat behind its Nordic neighbors Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, but is now starting to catch up. A recent report from IPC (International Post Corporation) showed that 22 percent of Finnish consumers shop online at least once a week, and 45 percent at least once a month. 

But not only that, Finnish consumers are also very keen cross-border shoppers. Out of all purchases made online in Finland, 34 percent are bought from another country. That is a higher cross-border proportion than the other Nordic countries. Their top five favorite foreign markets to buy from are China, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The most favored product categories to buy cross-border among Finnish online consumers are clothing and footwear, consumer electronics and accessories, and personal care and beauty products.

When it comes to how consumers want their online purchased items to be delivered, pick-up from a postal service point is still number one with 30 percent who prefer this. At the same time, parcel lockers are quickly growing in popularity with 26 percent favoring this alternative.

Olof Källgren, Market Information Manager, Direct Link