#10: What should the Nordics learn from Amazon Australia?
Amazon entered Sweden a couple of years ago after many rumours and speculation before its launch. There were a lot of discussions about how Amazon's entry will devastate the retail environment in Sweden and how the company will grab lots of business in the country quickly.
After the launch, the discussion quickly turned into a disappointment on how unprepared Amazon seemed. Lately, there has been little discussion on how Amazon will disrupt the Swedish retail markets.
Interestingly, the launch of Amazon, Australia, in 2017 had a similar boom and bust cycle. Many feared how Amazon would impact the Australian retail markets and eventually became disappointed by the poor launch of the company.
However, Amazon has become a significant retailer in Australia, and the Swedish launch seems to follow similar steps as in Australia.
Both countries have grown somewhat similarly in terms of web traffic to the local side. Also, the Prime loyalty service was launched around a year after the original launch in both countries.
Even though there is little discussion around Amazon in Sweden, companies should start paying more attention in all Nordic countries.
Comparable markets
Australia is comparable to Nordic countries in terms of population. Australia has a similar amount of people living as in the four Nordic countries of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.
Regarding purchasing power, Australia is smaller than Norway, Denmark and Sweden but a bit wealthier than Finland. Therefore, comparisons between the Australian launch and the Swedish launch are realistic.
First slow, then rapid
The most significant part of the Australian launch is how firstly, slowly, but then rapidly, Amazon has grown in the country. In 2017 and 2018. The revenue of the Australian subsidiary of Amazon seemed small, but over the last three years, Amazon has grown into a significant retailer will revenues of AU$1.75 billion; Amazon is among the most prominent online retailers in the country
At the same time as Amazon has been growing, it has surpassed the most significant Australian pure online player, Cogan. In 2019, Amazon passed Cogan; in revenues last year, Amazon was more than double the size of Cogan.
The rapid growth of Amazon coincided with a significant increase in the company's warehouse capacity.
All in all, retailers in the Nordic should pay much more attention to what Amazon is doing in Sweden, now, it looks like a small player, but in a couple of years, Amazon will be a significant retailer in the Nordic countries.
If Amazon were to reach the same level of sales (€1 billion) as it has (five years after launch) in Australia, Amazon would probably be the biggest online retailer in the Nordics.
One probably shouldn’t talk about if Amazon reaches that level, which will likely happen in the next five years. Thus, all of us in Nordic retail should be more interested in Amazon. 
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