E-commerce in Norway

E-commerce

Internet access

Out of a population of around 5.1 million, Norway has one of the highest internet penetration rates in the world, at 98%. Smartphone penetration is also high, at 97% of internet users. According to a survey published on e-Marketer, 59% of Norwegians say that they have their smartphone within reach for at least 20 hours per day. When dividing internet users by their age, 100% of 16-24 year olds, 99% of 25-34 year-olds and 100% of 35-44 year-olds connect to the internet on a daily basis. Norwegians between 45-54 years and over 55s show a 90% and 82% daily penetration rate, respectively. The most popular web search engines in Norway are Google (93.2%), Bing (5%) and Yahoo (1%).

E-commerce market

According to research by PostNord, the e-commerce industry in Norway was worth EUR 4.9 billion in 2017, of which 16% was represented by cross-border transactions. E-commerce is well developed in the country, as shown by the fact that around 80% of leading retailers have an ecommerce app and a mobile-optimized ecommerce website (eTail Nordic). The most visited web-shops in Norway are eBay, Komplett, Prisjakt, and Amazon, while Dustin Home is the leading online retailer. One of the factors that are leading the growth of e-commerce in Norway is the quality of IT and infrastructure, which make it easy and quick to deliver orders.

Social media

83% of people in Norway are active social network users. This market is led by Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. There are still discrepancies in the use of social medias according to the age: according to a survey by PostNord, in the group between 16-24 years almost 96% of the respondents are social media users. This ratio gradually diminishes as the age grows (for example, in the age group 55-64 years only 71% use social media). In 2017, there were 3.7 million Facebook users in Norway, while Instagram had 1.9 million users. Of this, 55% are female and almost 80% are aged between 18 and 54. More than 50% of Norwegian smartphone users are on Snapchat.