Despite the fact that the Nordics tend to end theironline shopping on desktop, we see that the use ofdesktop for actual purchases is descending, while theuse of mobile devices is rising.

Since last year, the use of desktop has slightlydecreased while the use of tablet has slightlyincreased. Also, the use of mobile has increased, but ina more drastic way. More specifically, the use ofmobile has increased by 25% from 2015 to 2016.Especially the younger age groups use their mobilesfor online shopping. Among the groups from 15-25and 36-45, 33% use their mobiles for onlinepurchases, while this is the case for 44% in the agegroup between 25-36.

This sends a clear message to the e-commerceplatforms that have not yet adapted their platformsfor mobile devices to take this seriously. Desktop isstill the preferred device when doing onlinepurchases, but mobile has now developed into amature platform.

On the following pages you will get additional insightsinto the online shopping habits across the Nordics,including the shopping journey from research topurchase. You will also learn which devices are used inthat process.

You will be presented with extended e-commercefindings related to Sweden and Norway. Among otherfindings, you will gain insights into how often theSwedes and Norwegians are shopping online, whatthey buy, and how they pay.

Enjoy!

Online shopping in the Nordics has reached a high andsteady level with 89% shopping online. Among theseshoppers, 48% claim that they do most of theirshopping online, while 40% say that they prefer to dotheir purchasing in offline stores. Despite the rise of e-commerce, this figure shows that the majority of thepopulation still prefers to go offline to do theirshopping as 11% don’t do online shopping at all.

It is a complaint often heard from retailers thatconsumers visit their stores to examine their goodsand then buy them online. However, more often it isactually the other way around. In the Nordics, 27% ofthose doing their research online end up doing theirpurchase in an offline store. Just 18% of those doingtheir research in an offline store end up doing theirpurchase online. This shows that the picture is notthat straightforward.

Looking at the usage of devices when shopping online,we see that the Nordics are increasingly switchingbetween devices and use multiple combinations ofdevices in their procession from research to purchase.

On average, half of the online shoppers switchbetween devices when doing online purchases and wesee that a lot of device combinations are brought intoplay. The combination of mobile and desktop is themost common, with 68% of the shoppers using thiscombination.

This shows that consumers tend to begin their onlineshopping on mobile and end it on desktop. E-commerce platforms should be aware of this and focuson cross-device buying funnels, all the way fromproduct awareness to the actual purchase.

AudienceProject Device Study 2016

E-commerce across the Nordics

Nine out of ten in the Nordicsare shopping online. Themajority of these consumersprefer to make their purchases inonline shops as compared tooffline stores. However, the wideuse of online shops is not alwaysbad for the offline stores, as agreat number of those doingtheir research online end upmaking their purchases offline.

AudienceProject Device Study 2016

Mobile shopping on the rise

Research online – purchase offline

Multiple devices in use

Get further insights

Online shopping

Online shopping in the Nordics

Online shopping in the Nordicshas reached a high and steadylevel with only little changes inthe amount of people doingonline purchases. In 2015, 88% ofthe Nordic population wereshopping online while thisnumber has increased to 89% in2016.

89% in the Nordics are shopping online

The amount of people shoppingonline has slightly increased inmost of the Nordic countriesfrom 2015 to 2016.

With 92% of the Danes shoppingonline, Denmark is the countrydoing online purchases the most.The Swedes and Norwegians areclose followers with respectively89% and 90% shopping online.The Finns are laggards with 85%shopping online.

Denmark

Sweden

Norway

Finland

2015 2016

92%

91%

89%

87%

90%

89%

85%

85%

15-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56+

86

Online shopping across age groupsOnline shopping across genders

92 92

9694 93

87

91

8082

2016

2015

Males in theNordics areshopping online

Females in theNordics areshopping online

87%

91%

Online shopping process

Online shopping from research to purchase

The people in the Nordicsshopping online prefer examiningtheir goods online before doingtheir purchases. Among theNordic population, 54% mostlydo their research online, whilejust 7% tend to visit offline storesto examine their goods. Finally,33% say that they do theirresearch both online and inoffline stores and the rest claimthat they don't know.

The differences across theNordics is limited. However,while around six out of ten amongthe Norwegians and Finns tend toexamine their goods online this isthe case with just above half ofthe Danes and Swedes.

54%

33%

7%

+

most often researchgoods online

most oftenresearch goods

online and offline

most often researchgoods offline

Note: Only people shopping online are in included

Note: Only people shopping online are in included

48%

40%

most oftenpurchase goods

online

most oftenpurchase goods

offline

As well as the people shoppingonline in the Nordics primarilyexamine their goods onlinebefore doing a purchase they alsotend to do their actual purchasesonline. Among the Nordics, 48%mostly do their shopping online,while 40% prefer buying theirgoods in offline stores. The restclaim that they don't know.

We see no notable differencesacross the Nordics

Where purchaseis made when

research is bothonline and offline

Where purchaseis made when

research is offline

Where purchaseis made when

research is online

Online

Online

Online

Offline

Offline

Offline 77%

18%

56%

29%

27%

66% Looking at where the Nordics aredoing there purchases whentaking account of where theresearch is made, we see thatonline shops are more beneficialto offline stores than the otherway around.

When research is made online,27% end up doing the purchase inan offline store, while just 18% dotheir purchase in an online shopafter having made their researchin an offline store. Also, offlinestores are preferred whenresearch is made both online andoffline.

Devices used for online shopping

Desktop is by far the mostpreferred device among theNordics when shopping online.More than nine out of ten usetheir desktop for onlinepurchases, while 30% use theirtablet and a quarter use theirmobile.

However, when looking at thedevelopment in the devices usedfor online shopping since 2014we see that the Nordics to alesser extent use their desktop,while they are increasingly usingtheir tablet and mobile.

The use of tablet increasedsubstantially from 2014 to 2015,while the use of mobile took aleap from 2015 to 2016. Since2015 the use of tablet onlyincreased by 3%, while the use ofmobile increased by 25%.

Devices used in the Nordics

DK SE NO FI

Desktop Tablet Mobile

15-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56+

Desktop Tablet Mobile

93

8987

93

33 32 32

2421

34

25

21

87

94

8790

93

22

35

42

35

24

33

44

33

21

9

Desktop is widely usedfor online shoppingacross all age groups.Tablet is primarily usedby the middle-aged andmobile is mostly used bythe younger age groups.

Desktop is widely usedfor online shoppingacross all countries. TheFinns are behind in theuse of tablet and theSwedes are especiallyfond of using mobile.

91%

92%

97%

30%

29%

25%

25%

20%

19%

2016

2015

2014

Devices used from research to purchase

Use of multiple devices when shopping online

Combination of devices used when shopping online

Even though the use of tablet andmobile has increased whenshopping online the use ofmultiple devices in combinationwhen doing online purchases hasnot reduced. Half of the Nordicpopulation are switchingbetween devices when shoppingonline. This is an increase since2014 and 2015, where 47% wereusing multiple devices incombination when doing onlinepurchases. Especially the 15-35years old tend to switch betweendevices in the buying processfrom research to purchase. In thisage group two out of three takemultiple devices in use.50% in the Nordics are switching between

devices when shopping online

The Nordics use a wide variety ofdevice combinations in thebuying process from research topurchase when shopping online.However, regardless of whichdevice is being used for research,the most common is to use thedesktop for the final purchase.

The far most used combination isthe mobile-desktop combinationshowing that most onlineshopping begins with research onmobile and ends with purchaseon desktop. Among the Nordics,68% use this combination.

With 28% using the tablet-desktop combination it appearsthat the use of tablet for researchfollowed by purchase on desktopis also widely used.

Even though desktop is primarilyused for the final purchase, alarge amount also sticks to mobiledevices alone in the process fromresearch to purchase. Among theNordics, 20% use their mobile toexamine goods online beforedoing the purchase on theirtablet.

5%

20%

68%

5%

4%

28%

13%

8%

17%

Extended e-commerce findings

Sweden & Norway | 2011-2016

How often do you shop online?

*

What did you buy?

*

How did you pay?

*

How was the product delivered?

*

What would make you moresatisfied with the delivery?

*

Where is the online shop located?

*

How did you find the online shop?

Online shopping frequency

Number of times shopping online per month

1

15+

11-15

9-10

7-8

5-6

3-4

2

15%

The number of times the Swedesand Norwegians are shoppingonline per month show that theyare relatively frequent shoppers.Among the Swedes, more thanthree out of four make onlinepurchases on a monthly basis,while this is the case with morethan 70% among the Norwegians.

In Sweden and Norwayrespectively 20% and 25% saythat they are shopping online, butthat they have not shoppedonline within the last month.

The majority of those shoppingonline on a monthly basis makesix or less purchases per month.Around one third of the Swedesand Norwegians are shoppingonline one or two times permonth, while another third makesbetween three and six purchasesper month.

It is only a minority of the Swedesand Norwegians that make morethan seven purchases per month.However, 8% of the Swedes aredoing seven or more onlinepurchases per month, while this isthe case with 9% of theNorwegians. Among these, 2%are heavy online shoppers withmore than 15 purchases permonth.

Sweden Norway

24%

15%

20%

17%

23%

10%

9%

3%

3%

2%

3%

1%

2%

25%

Swedes havepreviously shopped

online but not duringthe last month

Norwegians havepreviously shopped

online but not duringthe last month

1%

2%

20%

Types of goods purchased online

What Swedes purchased last time online

When looking at what theSwedes are purchasing whenshopping online, we see thatclothes and shoes stands out as aclear favourite. Almost one in fiveof all purchases made online is inthis category.

However, the types of goodspurchased online by the Swedesare very diverse and othercategories are popular as well.

Especially personal care andmedicine is worth noting as thiscategory has increaseddrastically in the last five years.Since 2011, the share of onlinepurchases made in this categoryhas grown from 4,4% to 11,3%.

Other categories which have seena large increase in the last fiveyears are sports equipment andgroceries. The share of onlinepurchases within the category ofsports equipment has grown from2,6% in 2011 to 5,6% in 2016,while the share of grocerypurchases has grown from 1,3%to 3,9% since 2011. This showsthat the online super markets inSweden really have made theirentry on the market.

In contrast, books and magazinesin physical form has decreaseddramatically in the last five years.Although this category stillrepresents a relatively largeshare of the purchases madeonline it has dropped from 12,8%in 2011 to 6,8% in 2016.

Also film and music in physicalform has decreased. Since 2011the share of purchases in thiscategory has dropped from 5,5%to 4,3%.

The decrease in these categoriesis not at the expense of anincrease in downloadedbooks/magazines and film/musicas the share of online purchasesrelated to downloaded books andmagazines has also decreased,while downloaded film and musichas been stable.

Film and music (physichal)

Clothes and shoes Personal care and medicine

Hardware and electronics Books etc. (physical)

Housing Travels

Sports equipment Entertainment

Film and music (download) Flight tickets

Train tickets

Groceries Books etc. (download)

Software (download) Phone cards

Jewelry Software (physical)

19,6% 11,3%

8,3%

6,0%

5,6%

4,7%

4,6%

3,9%

2,2%

1,4%

6,8%

6,0%

4,8%

4,6%

4,3%

3,1%

1,9%

1,1%

Types of goods purchased online

What Norwegians purchased last time online

As it is the case with the Swedes,clothes and shoes is the type ofgoods most Norwegians prefer topurchase online. One in six arepurchasing goods within thiscategory when shopping online. Itis a great increase since 2011,where clothes and shoes justrepresented 10% of the onlinepurchases.

Other categories which haveincreased in the share of onlinepurchases are personal care andmedicine as well as groceries -like we see in Sweden.

Since 2011, the share ofpurchases within the category ofpersonal care and medicine hasincreased from 5,2% to 8,6%making it the third mostpreferred category for onlinepurchases.

The online shopping of grocerieshas slowly grown from 0,8% in2011 to 2,2% in 2016. Thisindicates that the online supermarkets in Norway has madetheir entry on the market, butthat the Norwegians haven'tembraced this new way of buyinggroceries to the same extent asthe Swedes.

In contrast, books and magazinesin physical form as well as filmand music in physical form haveseen a decrease in the share ofonline purchases.

The share of online purchaseswithin the category of books andmagazines in physical form hasdecreased from 8,6% in 2011 to4,9% in 2016. In these five yearsthe share of downloaded booksand magazines has remained at astable level.

The online shopping of film andmusic has dropped dramaticallyfrom 9% in 2011 to 2,4% in 2016.It is partly at the expense of anincrease in downloaded film andmusic. This category hasincreased from 6,7% in 2011 to8,2% in 2016.

Books etc. (download)

Clothes and shoes Flight tickets

Personal care and medicine Film and music (download)

Travels Hardware and electronics

Sports equipment Entertainment

Books etc. (physical) Train tickets

Housing

Software (download) Film and music (physichal)

Groceries Software (physical)

Jewelry Phone cards

16,7% 10,0%

8,6%

7,8%

6,7%

4,9%

4,3%

2,7%

2,2%

0,8%

8,2%

7,6%

6,3%

4,6%

3,4%

2,4%

1,9%

0,7%

Method of payment

How Swedes payed last time shopping online

How Norwegians payed last time shopping online

Credit card PayPalDirectpayment

without useof internet

(COD)

Transferfrom bank /

giro account

Onlineorder with

paymentin physical

shop

Almost half of the Swedes preferpaying with their credit cardwhen shopping online making itthe far most popular method ofpayment.

However, direct payment withoutuse of internet is also widelyused. Almost a quarter of theSwedes prefer paying with cashon delivery (COD).

Payment with transfer from bankor giro account is also used by arelatively large share of theSwedes, but has decreased from19% in 2011 to 16% in 2016. Incontrast, the use of PayPal hasincreased from 4% to 8% since2011.

The 'other' category is primarilyrelated to invoice payments andpayments via Klarna and Swish.

Other

48%

22%

16%

8%5%

1%

Credit card PayPal Directpayment

without useof internet

(COD)

Transferfrom bank /

giro account

Onlineorder with

paymentin physical

shop

Other

66%

15%

9% 7%2% 1%

The vast majority of theNorwegians prefer paying withcredit card when shopping online.Two out of three use this methodof payment when doing theironline purchases. However, otherways of paying are also widelyused. Today, almost one in six usePayPal when shopping online,which is a great increase since2011, where just 10% used thismethod of payment.

Also direct payment without useof internet and transfer frombank or giro account is still usedby a relatively large share of theNorwegians. This is despite afairly big drop in these methodsof payment. COD has decreasedfrom 12 % in 2011 to 9% in 2016,while transfer from bank or giroaccount has decreased from 11%to 7% since 2011.

?

?

Product delivery

How product was delivered last time shopping online

Five years ago the most commonwas to get products delivered tothe home address by the mailafter purchasing them online.

However, since 2011 this type ofdelivery has slowly decreasedfrom 34% to 27% in Sweden andfrom 36% to 24% in Norway.

At the same time, the amount ofpeople picking up their productsby themselves at the post officehas slowly increased from 26% to33% in Sweden and from 26% to32% in Norway.

With this development it is nowmore common among the Swedesand Norwegians to pick up goodspurchased online than gettingthem delivered. Also when takingother pick up places and deliverycompanies into account.

Delivereddirectlyonline

Deliveredto address

by themail

Deliveredto address

by othercompany

Picked upat postoffice

Picked upat post

machine

Picked upat otherdelivery

place

Picked upat online

shop'sphysicaladress

How product delivery could be more satisfying

Free delivery

Faster delivery

Product delivered by well-known company

Delivery to home address

Free choice of delivery type

34

23

27

24

6

3

3332

01

9

32

1

Sweden

Norway

Sweden

Product left outside door when not home

50%

23%

12%

10%

3%

2%

Norway

46%

18%

14%

13%

7%

2%

Free delivery

Faster delivery

Product delivered by well-known company

Delivery to home address

Free choice of delivery type

Product left outside door when not home

Like the Swedes, the Norwegiansprefer to shop online via theirown national websites. Almosttwo out of three are shoppingonline via Norwegian websites.

However, the Norwegians useforeign websites more often thanthe Swedes. Almost one in ten areshopping online via Americanwebsites, while Swedish andBritish websites are used byrespectively 5% and 4%. Also, afair amount of the Norwegiansare shopping online via Chinesewebsites as China represents halfof the 'other' category.

Finally, 9% claim that they don'tknow where the online shops arelocated showing that theNorwegians also find it hard todetermine the geographicallocations of the online shops.

Online shop location

Where online shop is located - Swedish shoppers

When looking at the geographicallocation of the online shops thatthe Swedes are doing theirpurchases in, we see that theirown national websites are highlypreferred. Almost eight out of tenare shopping online via Swedishwebsites.

However, a relatively large shareof the Swedes also claim that theydon't know where the onlineshops are located indicating thatthe websites' geographicallocations are not always clear.

The ones shopping online viaforeign websites primarily preferAmerican, British and Germanwebsites. But also Chinesewebsites are frequently used bythe Swedes. Websites located inChina represents more than halfof the 'other' category.

Where online shop is located - Norwegian shoppers

SE

77%

? US UK DE DK NOOther

6%4% 4% 3% 3%

1% 1%

NO

63%

? US SE UK DK DEOther

9% 9%6% 5% 4%

2% 2%

Discovery of online shop

How the online shop was found by the Swedes

When looking at how the Swedesfind the online shops, we see thatthe use of search engines is mostcommon. Almost one in third findtheir way to the online shops viaGoogle or other search engines.

Also, recommendations are agreat reason for using a specificonline shop showing that apositive reputation is importantfor e-commerce platforms.

In contrast, we see thatadvertisements rarely causes theSwedes to visit the online shops.Since 2011, print advertising hasdecreased from 8% to 5%.

It is also worth noting that 23%claim that they don't know howthey find the online shops,indicating that consumers areinfluenced by many impressions.

How the online shop was found by the Norwegians

Search engine

Price comparison service

Newsletter

Recommendation

Display advertising

Print advertising

TV / radio advertising3%

2%

32%

23%

17%

9%

7%

5%

Print advertising

Price comparison service

Display advertising

TV / radio advertising

Search engine

Recommendation

Newsletter

As it is the case with the Swedes,the Norwegians primarily findtheir way to the online shops viasearch engines.

Also recommendations oftencause that the Norwegians visitonline shops - like we see inSweden.

Furthermore, newsletters play arelatively large role in getting theNorwegians to visit the onlineshops.

However, a quarter of theNorwegians don't know how theyfind their way to the online shops.This is a great increase since2011, where just 14% didn't knewindicating that it becomes moreand more difficult for theNorwegians to determine exactlyhow they find the online shops.

30%

25%

18%

10%

7%

5%

?

4%

Don't know

?

5%

Don't know

The e-commerce study is a part of a largerdevice study by AudienceProject withdata collected through online surveysdone during 2016. The respondents havebeen selected from our Nordic panel of750.000 panelists and been weighted toachieve representativity on the more than22.000 respondents who completed thesurvey.

Our e-commerce study has the aim ofexamining the online shopping habitsamong the Nordics.

The extended e-commerce findingsrelated to Sweden and Norway are basedon data collected through online surveysfrom 2011 to 2016. The respondents havebeen weighted to achieve representativityon the more than 50.000 respondentswho completed the survey.

The findings has the aim of expanding theinsights into the online shopping habitsamong the Swedes and Norwegians.

In some figures the respondents whoanswered 'don't know' have beenremoved from the calculated distributionto create a more clear picture betweenthe other answers.

About the study

Rune Werliinrw@audienceproject.com+45 60 17 76 66

Co-editor & Graphics

Martin Kokholmmk@audienceproject.com+45 25 61 32 19

About AudienceProject

AudienceProject has its roots in marketresearch, technology and large scale data.It helps brands, agencies, publishers ande-commerce companies identify, targetand validate audiences. The productsrange from audience planning, validationand targeting on socio-demographics aswell as other variables.

Contact

hello@audienceproject.comwww.audienceproject.com

Editor