Amazon, Sweden needs you
I have been living in Sweden for more than 4 years now. One of the few things I haven't get used to yet (and probably never will) is the bad online shopping experience in this otherwise very cutting edge country.
Let me start with what I'm used to from Germany: In one word, it's Amazon! I'm used to Amazon's huge product catalog, covering almost all categories you need. I'm used to competitive prices, I'm used to free shipping as soon as you buy something for more than 20 Euro and I'm used to fast delivery.
Now, let's have a look at what you get in Sweden: There is no Amazon or another player with a similar market power. Instead, you have many smaller and medium sized online stores for different product categories. For the same products, prices are usually much higher at a Swedish store compared to the German (or US) Amazon store - and I'm referring to prices without VAT. In addition, shipping in most cases is not free, at least not for goods in the lower and medium price range. And finally, my personal experience is that shipping takes much longer than what I'm used to from Berlin.
For the record: I'm living in Stockholm, probably the area in the Nordic countries with the highest population density. I would understand if online shopping is more expensive and shipping slower in the North of Sweden, where hardly anyone is living. But in a metropolitan area with a population of almost 2 million, things shouldn't be that underdeveloped.
I think what's missing on the Swedish market is a disruptive company like Amazon that challenges the local players and that at the same time increases people's interest in online shopping. It's just a subjective observation but I don't find Swedes being much interested in buying things online at all.
Of course the question is if this is because of the lack of a simply awesome online store, or if the lack of a simply awesome online store is the consequence of the Swede's preference for shopping in physical stores instead.
To be fair, there is at least one company that tries to improve things: tretti.se, a great online shop for whiteware with a good usability, low pricing, free and fast shipping. Unfortunately, I don't buy a new fridge every week.
So until the day when Amazon or another player will start to disrupt the Swedish online shopping world, I'll find myself continuously searching for products at the German Amazon store first and getting frustrated about that thing's have to be such a hassle when they could be that easy.
