Initially, it is not possible to have packages sent to Denmark, but the Swedish launch can be used as a “benchmark”, according to the industry organization.
October 28, 2020 may prove to be a fateful day for the Danish retail industry.
After several months of waiting, and even longer speculation, the internet giant Amazon has today opened the doors to its Swedish webshop. Initially, you cannot send packages from Amazon.se to Denmark, but the Swedish online store marks Amazon’s entry into the Nordic region.
An entry that was announced in August, and at that time made both people from the retail industry and experts warn that the reality could soon be different for Danish shops and webshops.
The Swedes have locked in a Trojan horse, which receives a lot of subsidies from the state, while at the same time fighting their own business life. Now it suddenly feels very close, said Niels Ralund, director of the Association for Danish Internet Trade (FDIH), to Weekendavisen back in August.
To Retailnews, Ralund says that the Swedish opening is “a benchmark” about what it will be like when Amazon comes to Denmark.
A new reality
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. Today, Bezos is not just the richest man in the world. He is so rich that his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, became the richest woman in the world when, in connection with their divorce last year, she received a small share of his shares in Amazon.
In the 25 years since Bezos started an online bookstore in a garage outside Seattle in the northwest corner of the United States, Bezos and Amazon have both been praised for their innovation – and criticized for their ruthless pursuit of consumer favor and money. .
When Amazon announced that they were coming to Sweden, you could read headlines such as “The wolf is on its way to Denmark, it’s called Amazon, and it bites!” in the daily newspaper Politiken , “All-consuming Amazon is making its entrance in the Nordic region. It can change the Danish cities and our everyday lives together ”in Information, and“ Their arrival has been feared for a long time ”in Berlingske .
Niels Ralund told TV 2 that Danish companies had to make an effort not to be run over by Amazon when they pitched the tent poles in Sweden.
Bezos’ fight with an elderly Swedish woman
In some ways, the story of the website Amazon.se itself is a picture of why the internet giant shares the waters so much.
In 1997, a small Swedish graphic design company from central Stockholm bought the web address Amazon.se. When you typed it in your browser, it was simply the graphic designer’s website that you ended up on.
That same year, Bezos’ rapidly growing webshop was listed on the stock exchange in the USA, and over the coming years, American Amazon, according to the Swedish media Ehandel.se, tried to buy the right to the Swedish website. But each time, the graphic design company said no.
Until finally something happened.
In 2015 and 2016, the company from Stockholm had approximately 40,000 in profit. But in 2017, the bottom line ended at 5.9 million Swedish kroner. The then 60-year-old woman who owned the graphic design business never explained what had happened. But in the accounts for 2017, an amount of 6.5 million Swedish kroner appeared under the item “other operating income”.
The 6.5 million Swedish kroner has since been classified as the price that Bezos’ internet empire had to pay for the right to Amazon.se, and it has been highlighted by many as an example of Amazon’s power: Even though the older woman stubbornly held on to her, she was eventually drummed – or sniffed, depending on who you ask – by Jeff Bezos’ huge money tank that got its will in the end.
So from today, Swedes can shop on Amazon.se.
When the door will open to Denmark – and the rest of the Nordic region – is still unknown.
Source: nyheder.tv2.dk
