Matti Robinson
14 Mar 2018 9:32
E-commerce giant Amazon is preparing a launch in a few new countries this summer, says Di Digital, a Swedish publication. According to them, and their insider sources, Amazon is expanding to at least Sweden but probably a few surrounding countries as well.
Others are corroborating the rumors too. Per Svärdsön, the founder of Adlibris and Apotea, a book and a healthcare online store, has heard the same rumors, according to Business Insider.
Most of it points to this summer or at least this year. Staffan Mölndal from venture capital firm Verdane Capital says Amazon has been on the lookout for e-commerce talent to recruit and eventually launch in Sweden. The launch schedule is expected well before this year's favorite American shopping holiday Black Friday.
There's a lot of demand for a larger scale, better functioning e-commerce in Sweden for sure, but expanding to only one of the Scandinavian, or Nordic countries, seems like a lot of hassle for a very limited customer base.
So it is not surprising that rumors suggest that the launch would extend also to neighboring countries. At least Denmark and Finland have been thrown in. Free next day delivery would be offered in each of these counties, although anyone who knows e-commerce's challenges in these countries might have their fair share of skepticism.
Amazon has been slowly trying to crawl into more European countries in previous years. Some digital services as well as a product here and there have even landed in Finland, for example. Going from an Echo and Amazon Music to a full-fledged Amazon experience is long ways off, though.
It is, however, clear that an online shopping revolution would be huge for the Nordics, so let's keep the fingers crossed.