Online retail in Finland is quickly gaining momentum, with nary a sign of the deflated economy in sight. Retail product sales have been particularly strong in the last year, while the online sales of services contracted slightly when compared to figures from 2013.
In the last five years, e-commerce in Finland has grown by twenty percent. The sales of food and alcohol products have shown the most growth, displaying an astounding 500 percent increase during that time.
In 2014 Finns bought 10.5 billion euros worth of retail products, services and other content online.
Online services down, retail goods up
According to the 2014 e-commerce figures, revenue from the sale of online services in Finland slid last year by 5.7 billion euros, including a visible drop in travel sales. Online purchases of package tours and plane tickets in particular were down on the previous year.
The online sale of retail goods however was up by 3.6 billion from 2013. Unfortunately, the increase in sales was not apparent throughout the entire retail industry, as the rise was limited to online transactions only.
“Convenience, price and selection are what most attract people to e-commerce,” says one of the men responsible for the 2014 figures, market researcher TNS Gallup’s Development Manager Ville Wikström.
Collected since 2010, the data on e-commerce in Finland is based on a quarterly poll of 11,500 Finnish consumers assessing retail and service sales and bookings. The data is jointly compiled by the market researcher TNS Gallup, the Finnish Commerce Federation and the ASML customership marketing association.