Speculation has been rife for years that the world's largest e-commerce business is about to set up shop in Sweden – after all, it does already own three data centres as well as a key Swedish domain name.
HUI research, a retail market researcher owned by the Swedish Trade Federation – you may know it best from its role in guessing, with varying degrees of success, the Christmas present of the year every winter – has now stuck its neck out and predicted that Amazon will roll out its Swedish site this autumn.
“We have had signals from players in the field that they are about to launch a Swedish site. We can't be 100 percent sure. They will do it at their own pace,” HUI Research's deputy CEO Emma Hernell told Swedish newswire TT on Tuesday, after newspaper DN first reported on the Amazon rumours.
“We think that they're going to keep delivering from their central warehouse in Germany. That means not rolling out the full package, such as fast deliveries. But perhaps they would also start with a small warehouse in Sweden,” added Hernell.
HUI Research believes that Amazon would launch in Sweden ahead of Black Friday at the end of November, the day Christmas sales usually kick off, based on how it has acted in other markets.
Retail consultant Markus Varsikko, who helps Nordic companies sell their products via Amazon, also tells DN that Amazon could be here by autumn, but says it could happen as early as September or October.
“Only Amazon knows for sure, but millions of details would have to work at a launch, not even Amazon would risk launching during Black Friday when the pressure is so great,” he said.
We know what you're thinking: would Amazon confirm all of this? Well, no.
“Unfortunately, we cannot comment on rumours and speculation,” Amazon press officer Bruce McLachlan told DN.
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