According to the IPC Cross-Border Shopper Survey 2023 released in December last year, 54 percent of Swedish consumers shop online at least once a month. This is a bit over the Nordic average of 51 percent, as measured by the IPC (International Post Corporation) report.

So what do the Swedes buy when they make cross-border purchases? Well, actually the same product categories that they buy from Swedish domestic e-tailers. 44 percent of Swedish cross-border consumers shopped clothing and footwear during 2023, 21 percent bought personal care and beauty products, followed by 18 percent who bought sport and leisure products.

For 2023, the favorite countries for Swedish online consumers to order from were China with a share of 48 percent, Germany 32 %, United States 23 %, United Kingdom 17 %, and Denmark 16 %.

Postal service point still the most popular delivery location

When it comes to the important issue of preferred delivery option, for Swedes it’s still a postal service point. 34 percent state this as their most-preferred alternative. Second most popular is delivery to mailbox at 26 %, followed by home delivery with 22 %. By comparison with a Nordic context, Finland is quite interesting. Here we are approaching a situation where parcel boxes are the most-preferred delivery method among Finnish online consumers.

Smartphone shopping has increased significantly in Sweden

It is interesting to note that Swedish consumers’ preference for using smartphones when making online purchases increases for every year. In the same IPC survey from 2016, 12 % preferred smartphones. In 2023, that figure has grown to 49 percent. The corresponding figure for Norway is 47 %, Finland 42 %, and Denmark 41 %.

Olof Källgren, Market Information Manager, Direct Link