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- Christmas shopping in 2020 broke all records, but it seems that we bought some more this time. The coronation pandemic continues to affect our economy and trade patterns in several ways. We buy more goods when we spend a lot of time at home. Many still have good finances and savings, and the trend of increased online shopping continues, says Jarle Hammerstad, head of industry policy at Virke, the main organization for the trade and service industry.
Virke estimates that the Christmas trade increased by 2-2,5%. compared to 2020, which corresponds in total to NOK 128-129 billion. This is 4-5 billion more than in 2020 and 6-7 billion more than Virke's forecast, which estimated a slight decrease. According to the DNB transactional data, the growth of e-commerce for the last two months of the year was around 10 percent.
Even with the extreme growth in 2020, e-commerce continued to grow strongly and contributed significantly to the overall growth of Christmas trading, says Hammerstad.
Cross-border traffic has had a big impact
During the long closure and with the borders closed in 2020, these are Art. groceries and home furnishings did well, while clothing, footwear, etc. stores had tough times. In 2021, clothing and footwear stores have risen in popularity but still appear to be well below the normal 2019 year.
Groceries started with a decline compared to 2020, but when infection control measures again led to reduced cross-border trade, the situation changed. Border crossing traffic data shows border crossings approached 2019 levels in November 2021, but fell sharply in December. This means that fewer people bought groceries in Sweden in December and did so instead shopping in Norway.
- 2020 was characterized by very strict infection control measures and near-hermetically sealed borders, while in 2021 the picture before Christmas was more divided. Moreover, the measures were introduced later, and when they do, it is not excluded that some of our consumption was shifted from services to goods. At the same time, it shows once again how important it is to limit cross-border trade, says Jarle Hammerstad.
Initial results are based on mall data from Kvarud Analysis, Virke's analyzes and SSB data for November.
Source: Virke
Photo: Jarle Hammerstad, Industry Policy Manager, Virke
Read our next article: What will life in Norway be like with the coronavirus.
