Sweden is a northern European country famous for its beautiful natural landscapes, its forward-thinking culture, and its stable and prosperous economy. Sweden is an attractive prospect to many businesses looking to expand internationally, and there are several reasons why.
It is the birthplace of many successful companies with global reach, including Volvo, H&M, Ericsson and Spotify, to name just a few. This success is putting Sweden more and more on the radar of businesses wanting to target lucrative international markets.
It is also a digitally mature nation. Sweden has a population of 10.6 million people. Of these people, 9.9 million are currently online, which represents an internet penetration rate of 94%.
It is also a wealthy nation, with Sweden ranking sixth in Europe for GDP per capita. Swedes typically have a good amount of disposable income, making them an enticing target audience for brands.
As you can see in the graph below, there is a fairly equal split between men and women, with very similar numbers of men and women having internet access at home.
The graph also shows internet access at home across different age groups in Sweden. As you can see, there are high levels of internet access at home across the entire 16 to 74 age group, with this only starting to drop off significantly in the over-75s.
There is no major digital divide between urban, suburban and rural areas of Sweden, with 96% of urban households having internet access, along with 93% of suburban households, and 93% of rural households.
The typical Swedish internet user spends 6 hours and 2 minutes online every day. Research by Meltwater and We Are Social found that the top three reasons Swedish users gave for using the internet were: finding information, staying in touch with friends and family, and keeping up-to-date with news and events.
Online privacy is important to this group. According to recent research, 43% of Swedish internet users decline cookies on websites, 34% prefer to remain anonymous when using online services, 33% use ad blocking tools, 31% worry about how companies might use their online data, and 22% use a VPN to access the internet.
59% of internet traffic in Sweden comes from mobile phones, 39% comes from desktop computers, and 2% comes from tablets.
This means that it is extremely important to have a mobile-friendly website to meet the demands of internet users and provide them with a positive user experience when interacting with your brand and website. Mobile-friendliness is also an increasingly crucial ranking factor for search engines, so not optimizing your website for mobile will prove detrimental to your organic traffic.
Given the dominance of mobile, you may want to create an app, as this presents a big opportunity for brands wanting to target the Swedish market. If you create an app, make sure to localize the language, especially if you are B2C. Make sure your app functions correctly and is valuable for users, otherwise your brand might suffer not only from poor return-on-investment but also negative reviews.
Internet speeds are fast. Sweden ranks 36th in the world for fixed broadband speed, with a median speed of 105.14 MB per second. It ranks 19th for mobile internet speed, with a median speed of 84.70 MB per second.
Google is the most popular search engine in Sweden, with a market share of 95%. Bing comes in second place with 3%, followed by Yahoo with 1%.
Google is therefore the search engine that you must focus your SEO and PPC efforts on. Make sure you are following best practices for search marketing on Google.
We cannot stress enough how vital it is to have a strong presence on Google. Recent research has found that search engines are the number one main channel for online brand research in Sweden, as well as the number one source of brand discovery.
However, be aware that 33% of Swedish internet users use an ad blocking tool. This means you do not want to rely completely on search advertising. Your organic SEO and content marketing efforts must also be given the attention they deserve in order to reach those internet users who have turned on an ad blocker.
Check that your geotargeting is correctly set up for your Swedish website. This will vary depending on how you structure your domains, but you are likely to need hreflang tags correctly implemented to ensure that your Sweden-targeted pages rank above your other country pages.
You should also check your website speed from within Sweden, and if the loading speed is slow, consider hosting your website on a local server. You do not want to go through all the effort of creating, designing and localizing your website, just to have those efforts undone by poor loading speeds and high bounce rates as a result.
If you sell products on your website, make sure to display prices in the local currency, use local weights and measurements, and accept local online payment methods.
And finally, make a point of creating and displaying local content, telling stories that are relatable and relevant to the local audience. This also includes the visuals and photos that accompany your written content.
Social media is very popular in Sweden. Research by Meltwater and We Are Social found that among its sample of Swedish internet users, 85% were social media users. The average internet user spends 1 hour and 58 minutes on social media every day and uses an average of 6 social platforms every month. The most common reasons for using social media are keeping in touch with friends and family, filling spare time, and reading news stories.
As you can see in the graph below, Facebook is the most popular social platform in Sweden, followed by Instagram and Facebook Messenger. All these platforms are used by more than half of all Swedish internet users every month.
With 85% of Swedish internet users being social media users, it is vitally important for brands to have a social media presence when targeting Sweden. You should use social media to communicate and engage with potential customers, and it is also a useful way of understanding and getting to know your target audience. You should aim to create content that triggers emotions in users by offering real value or a real connection with your brand. Although you will obviously need to post localized content on your Swedish social media accounts that caters to your audience in the country, your social media strategy will not differ significantly for Sweden compared to how you do it for other countries. For example:
Of course, you do not need to be on every social media platform; you only need to be where your audience is. Research your industry and your audience before entering the market, see what platforms they prefer and prioritize them. Bear in mind that your audience will most likely be present on multiple platforms and interact with you across all of them, but they will not want to see the same things from you on all of them. Your content strategy should take into consideration both who your audience is and where they are interacting with you.
When entering any new market, it is very important to be aware of the local culture and to adapt your marketing collateral appropriately. One way you can examine the Swedish culture is through the lens of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions.
Sweden has a fairly low score of 31 for power distance. This means that:
Sweden has a fairly high score of 71 for individualism. This means that:
Sweden has a very low score of 5 for motivation towards achievement and success. This means that:
Sweden has a fairly low score of 29 for uncertainty avoidance. This means that:
Sweden has a score of 53 for long-term orientation, placing it around the middle of the spectrum. This means that:
Sweden has a fairly high score of 78 for indulgence. This means that:
Sweden is one of the top ten happiest countries in the world, with high standards of living and a healthy work-life balance. Swedish culture is known to be very liberal, extremely polite and respectful. There is a strong belief in equality, with gender equality in Sweden being one of the highest (fifth place) in the entire world. Sweden also prides itself for its progressive policies with regards to LGBT+ rights, disability and national minorities. It is a secular country, with almost half of the population saying religion is “not at all important” to them.
Something that is very important to Swedes is the environment. They are very concerned about climate change and try to be as green as possible. For this reason, both the government and big companies are strongly pushing the idea to go paperless. You should bear this in mind when targeting Sweden, and try to make your business practices as environmentally friendly as possible.
From our experience helping global brands succeed in the Swedish market, we can add that data security and privacy are big concerns. Swedes are willing to give up their data (e.g. their name and email address) if they get something in return (e.g. an asset), but they want to know that their data is safe and will not be shared with any third-parties. It is therefore important to have a stringent data protection policy and to display this prominently on your website.
Looking at popular content types in Sweden, blog posts and articles should form a key part of your content marketing strategy. Most companies have a blog on their official website. Digital newspapers are also popular in Sweden, so conducting content outreach with digital newspapers can be an effective way of building brand awareness in the country. Email marketing also works well, since email is a popular form of communication.
You should be aware that Sweden is a world leader in technology and innovation, and it is therefore a competitive market for this niche. Also, the government is encouraging people to buy from local companies to support the local economy, so be prepared to compete with strong local players. Do not let that put you off, though; so long as you have a unique selling point that sets you apart from the crowd, there could well be a place for you in this market.
While the EF English Proficiency Index ranks Sweden as having very high English proficiency, it is still preferable to create content in the local language, rather than English, if possible – particularly if you are a B2C brand. Using English could give the impression that you do not really care about the market, since you cannot be bothered to communicate with them in their language, which could give a poor impression of your brand. (However, it could be deemed acceptable to use English to target Sweden when the content is explicitly targeting the whole Nordic region – i.e. Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.)
The language you should use when targeting Sweden is Swedish. Swedish is a North Germanic language. It uses the Latin alphabet, is written from left to right and has 29 letters (all 26 letters of the English alphabet, plus the three extra letters Å, Ä and Ö). It has two grammatical genders (common and neuter).
There are also five official national minority languages: Finnish, Meänkieli, Sami, Romani and Yiddish, all of which have been spoken in Sweden for a very long time. However, speakers of these languages almost always speak Swedish too, so you do not need to localize your content into these languages; Swedish will do just fine.
Translation and copywriting should always be done by a professional native Swedish speaker. Only a native will have a proper grasp of the local linguistic and cultural nuances and be able to create content that will truly resonate with your local Swedish audience.
Be aware that people in Sweden will think poorly of you if you have mistakes in your written Swedish content. If your content contains linguistic errors or if a translation does not make sense, your brand image could be damaged, with the poor-quality content gaining you a reputation as an unprofessional company.
You should also be aware that the Swedish language is on average 10% shorter than English. However, individual words may sometimes be much longer, because Swedish grammar makes it possible to create long compound words. Therefore, be prepared to provide guidance on character limits and the space available for content on your webpage and be conscious of how this can have an impact on things like your calls-to-action and product descriptions.
Speaking of calls-to-action, do not directly translate your calls-to-action from English, as a direct translation is unlikely to resonate and work well in Sweden. Instead, do some research to find out which calls-to-action are commonly used online in Sweden in your sector. As a general rule, your calls-to-action in Sweden will need to be direct and clear.
Another important thing to remember is Sweden’s strict advertising regulations, which state that all claims or statements must be verified. Misleading statements can lead to prosecution under the Marketing Practices Act.
Another area of digital marketing that is impacted by the Swedish language is dynamic keyword insertion. Swedish does not always take dynamic keyword insertion kindly, due to grammatical gender issues. Dynamic keyword insertion puts you at risk of producing copy that is faulty and off-putting. If you must use dynamic keyword insertion, make sure to use several templates to adapt to as many cases as possible and limit errors.
It is also important to think about your keywords. Keywords should never be translated; instead, you should always conduct local keyword research. This is because a translation will probably not produce keywords that have the most impact in the target market. Only fresh keyword research conducted by a native speaker will reveal the best keywords to target.
Sweden has a high level of consumption, a factor influenced by the country’s high wages and low rates of unemployment. This means that Swedish consumers have purchasing power that is above that of most other countries.
7.8 million people in Sweden (74% of the population) have made a B2C purchase on the internet in the past year. The B2C e-commerce market in Sweden is worth the equivalent of around USD 15 billion annually. The average Swedish B2C shopper spends the equivalent of USD 1,956 online per year.
According to a study by Meltwater and We Are Social, the e-commerce categories which saw the highest levels of growth in 2022 compared to 2021 were: food with a year-on-year growth rate of 25% and beverages with a growth rate of 5%. All other categories saw a decrease in spending. Electronics saw the biggest reduction in spending, with spending falling 18% compared to the previous year. This was followed by physical media (spending down 14%), furniture (down 9%), toys, hobby and DIY (down 3%), fashion (down 3%) and personal and household care (down 1%).
The main drivers of online purchases are key indicators as to what Swedish users value most when making their online purchasing decisions, giving you an opportunity to understand what is best to highlight in your marketing collateral and calls-to-action, so that you can convert leads into customers. Free delivery is the top driver of online purchasing behavior in Sweden, with 66% saying this would encourage them to buy. This is followed by coupons and discounts with 41% and reviews from other customers with 33%.
With Swedish consumers being highly literate in English, there is an opportunity for international sellers to reach this market. The most popular foreign markets that Swedes buy from are Germany, China and the UK. The only barriers that might stop Swedish customers from international shopping are a fear of hidden customs charges, lack of free returns and high costs of international delivery – so make sure to explicitly address these concerns when selling to Swedes online.
Looking at e-commerce payment methods, buy now pay later is the most popular option, accounting for 24% of online purchases. Digital wallets come in second place, accounting for 21% of online purchases, followed by account-to-account payments (20%), credit cards (17%) and debit cards (15%). The remaining 3% is split between cash-on-delivery, prepaid cards and others. It would therefore be wise to offer multiple payment options when targeting the Swedish market, since various payment methods have significant popularity.
Another important thing to remember is to ensure you are selling in the correct currency: Swedish krona (kr or SEK). This may sound obvious, but you would be surprised how many businesses see poor results simply because they have neglected to localize the currency on their website.
When creating your price labels, be aware that Sweden is one of the countries that uses the comma as a decimal separator, and not the point. Furthermore, the comma is not used as a thousand separator; instead, groups of digits are typically separated by a space. This is different from how numbers are written in English-speaking countries. The bullet points below illustrate this by demonstrating how to write one hundred thousand krona in the English versus the Swedish way. When targeting Sweden, make sure that your prices follow the Swedish standard, to ensure clarity.
Alternatively, you could sell your products on an e-commerce marketplace. The most popular e-commerce marketplace in Sweden is Blocket. Amazon comes in second place, followed by Tradera, then Prisjakt, then Clas Ohlson. If you want to sell your items on an online marketplace, Blocket should therefore be your first choice when targeting Sweden.
Swedish shoppers are more likely to buy from an online retailer again if they are satisfied with the delivery. This satisfaction begins with clear delivery information and being able to specify a delivery day. The ability to track purchases is also important to Swedish online shoppers. Home delivery is the preferred delivery location.
Be aware that there are seasonal fluctuations in the Swedish e-commerce calendar, when sales take place and people are more likely to buy. These sales typically take place immediately after Christmas, and also in the run up to Midsummer (in early June). Make sure you tap into this seasonality when selling your products and coming up with your marketing materials.
The Swedish market is one that is both wealthy and digitally mature, with high levels of internet penetration and high spending power. It is a strong and established market that rightfully draws the attention of many global brands. We hope this guide has given you a good starting point from which to build your Swedish success story. If you localize your strategy effectively, your digital marketing and business expansion efforts in the country have the potential to go far. Good luck!
Want to discuss how we can help your brand succeed in Sweden? Let’s talk!
