Every year it's the same old story: "This year I'm going to shop everything online."  On December 23rd, many of us are still standing in a crowded mall, desperate to find something smart to buy that surpasses last year's (rather deaf) ski gloves we gave to brother-in-law and the almost useless luggage weight that was given to brother. This year we will have plenty of time, we will use time to give gifts with meaning. And we will buy them online.

For the first time in modern times, skippertaker buyers like us and many others in a similar situation, have received a unique kick in the ass as a result of the pandemic. This year, we skippertaker buyers have finally gotten the push we need to do all our Christmas shopping online. This places great demands on the stores.

Christmas shopping from the sofa

For November and December combined, Virke estimates that Norwegian consumers will shop for around NOK 31 billion in Norwegian online stores. Including omnichannels, i.e. physical stores that also sell online, e-commerce will increase by 6.0 percent from the previous year. The pandemic years obviously also affected the growth we have seen in online shopping in recent years. With the requirement for face masks, 2 meters distance and the fact that we cannot be gathered in too large groups, it was for many to be untempting and not least impractical to do their Christmas shopping physically in stores.

At the same time, many who traditionally preferred physical shopping, that online shopping and home delivery also worked quite well. If we are to believe Virke's figures, this has reinforced Norwegians' online shopping habits. Many of us want to do this year's Christmas shopping online from the comfort of our sofas with our mobile phones, rather than visiting the physical store. It will be a good opportunity for us as customers to avoid long queues and hustle and bustle at the shopping center and not least a good opportunity for the stores to impress us with good customer experiences online.

But what expectations do we have for the online store and what demands does the growth place on the stores that want to succeed digitally?

New requirements for customer experience and the use of data

When we as customers shop physically in a store, we have a certain expectation that the shopping experience is seamless and efficient. At the same time, we have an expectation that the store employee's customer follow-up is adapted to our needs and preferences. These are expectations that we are now bringing with us into the online store.

In other words, as customers, we expect a customer experience that is personalized, relevant and tailored. This means that the online store knows what we are interested in, that we get relevant marketing about these products and that we get tips and advice based on behavior and shopping patterns. Every day the online stores do not work to improve the customer experience, there is a loss of revenue and income.

If the online stores are to succeed in this, they need access to data. Data that we consumers have agreed to share in exchange for good customer experiences.

With a new and robust IT architecture, Farmasiet can now offer more personalized content, create world-class targeted marketing and customer experiences.

In order to gain access to this data, there is a great need for a comprehensive digitalization boost among many online stores in the Norwegian market. Unfortunately, many stores today have large amounts of data about customers that they are unable to utilize in a value-creating way.

Better utilization And making this data available will ensure a better online store that is personalized to the customer's behavior, needs and preferences. This will of course result in higher conversions and at the same time ensure that the online store is well equipped to receive the increased volume as a result of the fact that this year we will do large parts of our Christmas shopping online.

Why didn't we do more to become better at online shopping?

It is worrying for Norwegian retail that more stores have not come further in it The truth is that they already have to start the work of making up for lost revenue from the physical store.

"Why didn't we do more to get better at e-commerce?" is a question that you want to avoid asking when it's already too late. In the meantime, those online stores that are already good at data-driven customer experiences will benefit from our changing shopping habits.

For those who have not yet started offering their customers good shopping experiences online, the future looks far more uncertain.