Mobile users become mobile buyers
About 25 million people live in the region and over 20 million users own a smartphone, with Sweden having the biggest user base, at almost ten million people. Although less than in the past decade, smartphone users are also forecast to slightly increase, expanding the potential consumer base of mobile e-commerce. As a result, e-commerce sales from mobile devices will also expand and reach almost 40 percent by 2025, while the desktop sales share diminishes.Most consumers who already buy online appreciate the ease of shopping through their mobile phones. Almost eight in ten Swedish shoppers did so, while Finnish and Danish online consumers seemed a bit less eager to purchase via mobile devices. Furthermore, in Sweden, the coronavirus outbreak brought about a particularly striking increase in mobile shoppers.
Winners in mobile traffic & in-app shopping
Compared to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, overall traffic to e-commerce sites has lately decreased in the Nordic countries. Nevertheless, mobile devices still account for most online visits, outdoing desktop traffic. While app downloads lead to established e-retailers, Scandinavian consumers favored in-app transactions for media and second-hand products. In Norway, Denmark, and Finland, the shopping app rankings showed two undisputed leaders, the videogames marketplace LootBoy, and the classified listings site Wallapop. Sweden represented an exception, as the local businesses’ app Supporter had the highest in-app revenue.Besides e-commerce, digital payments become mobile-first, too. In 2021, almost one in four Danes paid their online purchases with applications like Swish or Vipps, and one in ten Swedish and Norwegian online shoppers did the same. While proximity payments are handy for several types of in-store purchases, online shoppers used carrier billing options, consisting of charging their mobile carrier for online purchases. Compared to other Nordic countries, carrier billing was most profitable in Norway, where the average revenue per paying user neared 40 U.S. dollars.
