It seems that ecommerce in Finland is doing well. Not only do they have mountains so lofty and treetops so tall, but ecommerce in Finland isn’t seeing a fall.
Online orders increased by 8.2% during the last quarter of 2017, compared to the same period in 2016. And total sales increased by 9.4% during the same period. One year ago the increase was 18,2% compared to Q4/2015 so the growth rate was slightly more modest between the last quarters of 2016 and 2017. The growth for the whole of 2017 was 10% compared to 2016. This information comes from the Vilkas Group.
And the Finnish national postal service Posti also reported a record season. They delivered over 37 million packages in 2017, which is a new record for the company and compared to 2016 volume increased by 9%.
But international pricing has been a pressure on Finnish ecommerce firms, it seems as competition increases. Vilkas Group CEO Markku Korkiakoski says: “The e-retailers have been forced to respond to the aggressive pricing from foreign competitors by lowering their own prices during campaigns such as Black Friday etc. The end customers are sensitive to prices and usually buy from the cheapest place they can find, so the Finnish retailers have had to start selling with a smaller margin. But in the light of this favorable trend of order volumes it seems this counterattack by Finnish ecommerce has been successful and the growth of order volumes has stayed in the same rate as for foreign operators.This competition has been quite costly for Finnish ecommerce, so it is a good reason for e-retailers to start looking even more carefully at their spendings. Expenses can be reduced for example by automating processes and choosing the most competitive suppliers.”
Do you sell to Finland? And has it been successful for you?
One Response
Finland is probably the least well of all the Nordic countries. Population wise it is not huge, and we do sell direct into Finland.
E-commerce will be popular, when you move away from the South of the country there is a limited choice, especially the further North you go past Kuusamo, after spending several years out there as a SKi instructor in the Winter back in the day, there is not a lot about, this is where we tend to find we get most our orders. Bonus is we have never had a LOST order go to Finland.
Very Price conscious the Finns the cost of living is pretty high there. It is a very limited market however.