Retail Day 2022

Retail Day is an e-commerce event organised by PostNord every year. During Retail Day, the annual report of the E-barometer is also released, which shows how Swedish e-commerce is developing. This report is presented at Retail Day every year in collaboration with Svensk Digital Handel and HUI Research.

This year, the guests at Retail Day included Daniel Johansson, Supply Chain Director from Stadium, Susanne Ehnbåge, CEO and Annika Elfström, CIO from Lindex

The theme of Retail Day 2022 was“The Holy Grail of Retail – from seamless customer journeys to optimised customer experiences“

Growth in the wake of the pandemic

We are used to the fact that e-commerce is constantly growing, but what does a pandemic actually do for development? Already last year, we saw record growth (40%) for e-commerce during the pandemic.

The fact that it has also become a long-term pandemic has meant an accelerated digital transformation in society where more and more people are becoming comfortable with, for example, shopping for groceries online (growth of 36% in 2021). The older generation is also increasingly embracing digitalisation.

Growth went from 53% in Q1 to -1.2% in Q4, the first time there has ever been a decline in e-commerce growth in Sweden. The fact that we are seeing this kind of extreme numbers is simply due to the pandemic.

The total growth in 2021 ended up at 20%.

Growth in the coming year

As we start to see the end of the pandemic, will growth come to a complete halt? Not many people think so. Instead, the pandemic has made many people open their eyes to new ways of shopping. Some will go back to their usual routines, while others have got used to the newfound convenience.

It is also recognised that rural areas and second-hand goods will be likely growth markets for e-commerce. The second-hand market is a fragmented market that may become clearer in the coming years as sustainability becomes more important to the customer. In rural areas, e-commerce provides increased accessibility.

The forecast for overall e-commerce growth in 2022 is around 8%.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a recurring hot potato when e-commerce is discussed. There are many opinions when it comes to how to best make e-commerce more sustainable. What most people seem to agree on, however, is that the “climate-smart” choices must be made clearer to the customer.

Here, e-retailers can probably be more helpful in making the de facto smart climate choices easier for customers to understand and choose. E-commerce must be more proactive in creating change; even a customer who thinks about sustainability will often make the easy choice.

One example where it is currently difficult for customers to actually see which is the best choice is at the checkout when delivery options are displayed. There are various different “climate-smart” labels that often do not give the customer clear information about what they are choosing. The most sustainable option is not always the first choice either.

More and more online retailers are actively working on circular solutions. This can range from using more environmentally friendly packaging to buying back products for second-hand sales. One example is Gina Tricot, which has gone so far that you can send back the packaging you received your product in, so it can be used again.

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important for customers, even if price is still the most crucial factor.

Trust and choice make it easier for customers to choose

In the wake of the pandemic, freedom of choice for deliveries has become increasingly important. A greater proportion of customers want to have their delivery delivered directly to their door or at least be able to choose a specific delivery point. Here, the certainty that you will receive your delivery on time, that they are in stock and that everything works is also important. E-retailers generally need to take greater responsibility for deliveries, all the way to the customer.

Amazon, which is still relatively new to the Swedish market, is a good example of taking responsibility for the entire customer journey, including delivery.
With Angry Creative’s solutions, you as an e-retailer can choose a logistics solution that allows you to follow the deliveries all the way to the customer and you can give the customer the freedom of choice they want to feel comfortable. This, together with a payment solution from one of our partners that the customer feels safe with, provides a complete solution where the customer’s freedom of choice is in focus. The lack of payment options is still the biggest cause of shopping basket abandonment.

Another important part of offering customer peace of mind is, as mentioned, displaying accurate information for stock balances. A customer who buys a product they think is in stock but isn’t is likely to opt out of the same store next time.

In an internationalised store, this is something that can easily go wrong. But with our Qala Single Stock extension, we have an excellent solution for managing stock across multiple local market sites in WooCommerce.

The e-barometer

If you want to see all the statistics from Retail Day, you can download the E-barometer 2021 from Postnord’s website.