The American e-commerce giant Amazon is opening a logistics center in Eskilstuna and has announced that a launch in Sweden is underway.
For many years, physical stores have been pressured by e-commerce and the competition will probably be even tougher when Amazon now wants to attract even more Swedish customers.
- The competition will of course increase, the price pressure will increase, says Karin Johansson, CEO of Swedish Trade.
Physical stores losers
She believes that the big winners at Amazon in Sweden are the companies that have their own strong brands and niche products, but which do not have their own sales channel but can instead use Amazon as their platform to reach customers.
Pär Svärdson is something of a Swedish veteran in e-commerce.
He co-founded Adlibris and now runs several e-commerce companies, including being CEO of the online pharmacy Apotea.
- The winners are the consumers.
The losers are probably more the physical trade, and maybe the occasional bad e-trader, he says.
He is optimistic that Amazon will be launched in Sweden and believes it can be an energy boost for e-commerce.
- It can probably be a bit of a vitamin injection to bring in the world's largest e-commerce in Sweden.
I would think that it can revitalize and increase the speed of how fast e-commerce grows in Sweden.
China is leading the development
But if you look ahead, perhaps it is other companies than Amazon that will affect Swedish trade the most.
This is the opinion of Karin Johansson, CEO of the trade association Swedish Trade:
- The innovation when it comes to e-commerce today comes from the East.
I am quite convinced that the trends seen in China with "live video shopping" and a development of e-commerce, will also reach the Swedish market.
So there are other players to keep an eye on than just Amazon.