Digital Grocery Sales Set to Rise in Sweden

Digital grocery shoppers prefer computers to mobile devices when buying online

July 8, 2015 | Retail & Ecommerce | Retail & Ecommerce

Digital sales of groceries in Sweden totaled SEK3.0 billion ($437.2 million) in 2014, representing an increase of 41% compared with the previous year, according to a May 2015 study by HUI Research for Svensk Digital Handel. As such, the grocery industry was one of the fastest-growing sectors on the web in the country last year, and sales were expected to increase by another 40% in 2015.

Nevertheless, a relatively small share (25%) of internet users in Sweden actually bought groceries on the internet during 2014. Young adults ages 18 to 25 were the most likely to be digital grocery buyers last year, at 42%, while those ages 65 to 70 were the least likely, at 11%. Buying groceries on the web was also slightly more common among households with children compared with those without, at 29% and 23%, respectively.

According to the research, digital grocery buyers in Sweden preferred computers over any other device when it came to making their purchases online. More than eight in 10 said they had used a laptop or desktop to stock up their digital shopping carts in the year leading up to polling. This strong preference was likely due to the larger screen size and the ability to see more than one product at a time.

Tablet browsers were the second most common digital channel to purchase groceries, with 14% of digital grocery buyers in Sweden having done so in the past year. Mobile phone browsers and apps followed, each cited by 10%. Despite the fact that mobile devices were used relatively infrequently for buying groceries, they did play an important role in the purchase process overall. The study noted that consumers used them for product research or to buy an item that they forgot to pick up in-store.