International overtake
Amazon.se launched in Sweden at the end of 2020. This marks the first time the international retail giant entered the Nordic market, reshaping the e-commerce landscape in the region. In 2023, amazon.se generated net sales of around 152 million U.S. dollars. With such a large revenue flow, Amazon poses a serious challenge to local marketplaces in the region. Other Nordic companies can now trade on amazon.se, or opt for the German site amazon.de. For Danish companies, amazon.se already offers professional support in their native language. To what extent the e-commerce giant will impact online retailing in the region remains to be seen.Hobby and leisure were the top-selling categories on Amazon's Swedish platform in 2023. With around 36 percent of sales, electronics was the second-largest category. In March 2023, most Amazon mobile shoppers were under 35 years old. That same year, Swedish shoppers downloaded the Amazon app a staggering 393,000 times. It was also a popular marketplace app in other Nordic countries, signaling growing popularity in the region.
Homegrown players
While multinational Amazon is a business-to-consumer (B2C) platform, local players are the biggest consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplaces in the Nordics. C2C marketplaces are platforms that facilitate transactions between private sellers and buyers. Essentially, these are forums where people can sell their used goods online in order to make some extra cash.The Norwegian Schibsted Media Group has a firm hold on the Nordic C2C market. Founded in 1839 as a publishing company, the company now operates some of the biggest online marketplaces in the Nordics: Finn, Blocket, Tori, and DBA. In 2023, Schibsted's marketplaces generated over 5.4 billion Norwegian kroner in revenue. The segments classifieds (83 percent) and advertising (10 percent) made up the highest revenue shares. The Schibsted marketplaces attract millions of visitors every month. In February 2024, users visited Finn 42 million times, Blocket over 21 million times, and Tori approximately 17 million times.
