Biggest Swedish online retailers continued strong growth in 2021
Ten biggest online retailers in Sweden in 2021 (Source: market.se)
The Swedish retail media site Market.se had a fascinating article on Sweden's most prominent online retailers. After rapid growth in 2020, the most significant 200 Swedish online retailers grew by 17,7 %. The total revenues of the top 200 online retailers grew from 80 billion Swedish crowns (SEK) (7,35 bn€) to 94 billion SEK (9,4 bn€).
The biggest pure-play online retailer in Sweden was fashion pure player Boozt with revenues of 5,66 billion SEK (519 M€). It grew by 30% in 2021, surpassing Dustin (7,5% of growth) as the biggest Swedish online retailer. The third biggest online retailer was Apotea, just like the previous year. Apotea saw sales increase by 11%, totalling 4,6 bn SEK (420 M€).
Each of the top three retailers had more than 400 million € in revenues.
The three most significant online retailers were bigger than the other ones. Apotea was 67% bigger than the fourth biggest Media-Saturn.
Out of the remaining seven retailers in the top 10, each had revenues of over 2 billion SEK (180 M€). Out of the top 200 online retailers, 24 had more than 1 billion SEK revenues. That equals roughly 90M€.
Many retailers growing by more than 100%
Despite having an excellent year in 2020, many online retailers continued to grow rapidly from the elevated level reached in 2020. However, surprisingly many retailers were unable to get the 2020 levels. A total of 42 retailers saw declining revenues.
Fourteen of the pure online players grew by more than 100%.
Of the growing retailers, Boozt and HelloFresh were able to grow in absolute SEK terms by more than 1 billion SEK (91,9 M€).
The meal kit maker HelloFresh was one of the big surprises among online retailers in Sweden. HelloFresh's revenue jumped from 33 M€ to 142 M€ in revenues. The growth of HelloFresh amounts to one of the most significant growth spurts in percentage and absolute SEK.
Of the fastest growers, HelloFresh, Scandinavian design retailer Nordic Nest and snuff retailer Snussbolaget were the only big players (reaching above one billion SEK) to grow above 50%.
Clothes and electronics dominate the top
The traditional categories of the biggest online retailers tend to dominate in Sweden, similarly to other countries. Online retailers that sell clothes (fashion, outdoors…) or electronic gadgets crowd out the top 20 listings. Of the 20 biggest online retailers in Sweden, 11 were more or less in the following two categories.
Also, the DIY category is relatively popular among the most prominent retailers. It had six retailers in the top 50. Another traditionally big online category is Beauty, which had four retailers in the top 50.
Profitable growth for surprisingly many
Poor profitability is one of the recurring topics in the discussion of online retailing. However, of the biggest online retailers in Sweden, only one-quarter were unprofitable.
Some of the unprofitable retailers were growing fast, i.e. putting growth before profitability. However, almost 20 of the unprofitable players were also declining in sales, a poor combination to have.
On the other hand, many retailers can combine rapid growth with good profitability.
A total of 13 retailers had a profit margin above 20%, an excellent level for an online retailer.
Of the most profitable companies, only iPiccolo could not grow sales. Surprisingly many (9) of the highly profitable retailers grew by more than 20%, combining 20+% growth to 20+% profit margins.
That is a very good place to be for a retailer.
----------------
Would you like to learn more about the retail trends unfolding internationally?
We do trend reviews, from individual presentations to ongoing quarterly reviews. Read more about them in the Services section or send us a message at arhi@adainsights.fi, and we can talk more about how we could help you understand the changing retail environment in a better way.
Most profitable online retailers in Sweden (Source: market.se)