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Act before the market
hen we talk about e-commerce opportunity, the conversation often starts, and ends, with the size of a market. How many webshops are there? Which countries have the highest absolute numbers?
At Tembi, we believe that raw totals only tell part of the story. To really understand where e-commerce is thriving, and where it’s just starting to take hold, you need to look at density, digital integration, and market readiness.
We recently analysed data across 20+ European countries, looking not only at total webshop numbers but how they compare to population size and national business ecosystems.
Some of the results are surprising:
Knowing how many webshops exist per capita or per company tells us more than just the size of the e-commerce sector. It signals how deeply online sales are embedded into the economy.
For commercial teams, this is essential context. Are you entering a market where most companies already sell online? Or one where there’s room to help businesses go digital? Are you facing established competitors, or discovering a still-fragmented field?
This kind of intelligence can shape your go-to-market plan, sales motions, and even your product localisation strategy.
In short: don’t just look at the number of webshops. Look at who they serve, how they scale, and how densely they operate within the economy. Because the future of e-commerce isn’t just about growth -it’s about depth, integration, and staying power.
hen evaluating market opportunities, many look at total size. But total size doesn’t tell you where momentum is building. New webshop creation - and survival - is often a better indicator.
Despite being considered mature digital markets, across Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Iceland, 9,200 new webshops were launched in 2024 that are still active today. That’s not total launches, that’s survivors - which gives a better sense of which markets are currently supporting new players.
This challenges conventional wisdom about market saturation and highlights untapped opportunities in the region.
Sweden leads with the strongest growth, showing a 42% increase in the number of newly launched webshops that remain active compared to the previous year. Close behind is Denmark, with a 39% year-on-year growth. These figures suggest that both markets are currently fertile ground for e-commerce newcomers, despite heightened competition and shifting consumer behaviour.
Finland and Iceland also recorded positive, albeit more modest, developments. Finland saw a 14% increase in surviving new webshops, while Iceland posted 13% growth. These numbers may not be as dramatic as Denmark or Sweden, but they still point to a healthy pace of new market entrants that are finding ways to stay afloat.
Norway, by contrast , is the only market that moved in the opposite direction. Here, the number of newly launched webshops that remained active declined by 2% compared to the previous year. While not a steep drop, it stands out in a region otherwise trending upwards. This downturn was primarily concentrated in one category - Beauty & personal care - which appears to have experienced a wave of closures (more details on this in our previous blog post available here).
The contrast between countries suggests that, even within a shared economic region, local market dynamics and category-specific pressures can lead to different outcomes.
At first glance, it may seem contradictory: high closure rates alongside a surge in new webshop launches. Between August 2024 and February 2025, over 3,300 Danish webshops ceased activity. That’s 11% of the total market, gone in just six months. This might suggest a market in retreat struggling with saturation. But the full picture tells a different story.
In the very same period, 2,645 new webshops were successfully launched and remained operational. These aren’t just test stores or dormant domains. These are active webshops that made it past the initial setup phase and into actual trade.
One of the more common assumptions about Nordic e-commerce is that the market is saturated. With strong category leaders and high consumer expectations, it can appear that there is little room left for new entrants. However, the consistent entries of still active webshops launched in 2024 challenges that thinking.
These are not just short-lived experiments or weekend projects. They are businesses that have managed to find customers, generate sales, and carve out a place in the market.
In addition, sustainability is playing an increasingly influential role in shaping consumer choices. According to PostNord’s 2024 report, 8 out of 10 Nordic shoppers consider sustainability when making purchases. This creates space for newcomers with strong brand values, circular business models, or second-hand offerings, which are becoming more popular particularly in fashion.
This also presents strategic opportunities for established brands. The new entrants create a pipeline of potential partners, collaborators or acquisition targets. For incumbents, this is a chance to stay ahead of the curve by aligning early with brands that may become the next category leaders.
For entrepreneurs, the lesson is that everything is still very much possible. While competition is strong, the path to growth remains open to those with a clear proposition answering real customer needs. Differentiation, specialization, and a willingness to build something that doesn’t look like everything else on the market will again prove to be key advantages.
Rather than signaling saturation the current trends reflect a dynamic market. New players continue to reshape what is possible, and the space for innovation remains open.
At Tembi, we track over 600,000 webshops across Europe, updating our database bi-weekly to gather historical data and monitor the development of each webshop.
Most of us can name the biggest online retailers—but what about the thousands of smaller webshops that make up the real fabric of e-commerce? In Denmark alone, a country of just under six million people, there are over 30,000 webshops actively selling products online. And if we include service-based and other categories, the number climbs beyond 40,000.
That prompted us to ask: how many of these webshops are actually surviving?
By comparing webshop and company data from August 2024 to February 2025, Tembi identified over 3,300 webshops that had ceased activity. That represents 11% of the total market - a significant churn, even if mostly made up of small to medium-sized players.
In the last 6 months in Denmark:
This does not signal an 11% drop in e-commerce overall, but it does indicate high volatility - particularly among smaller players.
Looking at category distribution, Clothes and Shoes make up 13.2% of all Danish webshops, followed by Furniture at 10.2%.
When we analysed closures, the category that took the biggest hit was also Clothes & Shoes, with 530 webshops closed - accounting for 16% of all closures. Beauty & Personal Care and Furniture followed, with around 170 closures each.
This aligns with overall category size: more webshops in a category generally mean more closures. But fashion clearly over-indexes in both size and risk.
Fashion e-commerce is fiercely competitive. Dominated by global players and shaped by constantly shifting consumer preferences, it also faces the operational challenge of seasonal inventory cycles.
To stand out, local brands need a differentiated marketing approach. But with advertising costs rising sharply, that’s easier said than done. It’s not uncommon for B2C fashion stores to increase their spend by 20% just to maintain business-as-usual - often still being outbid by global giants. This forces a tough choice: either reach fewer customers or spend at unsustainable levels.
Add to this the so-called Temu effect. Chinese dropshipping marketplaces like Temu use aggressive, loss-leading strategies to offer ultra-low prices. Danish webshops can’t compete without sacrificing quality or profitability. Even environmentally conscious shoppers can be swayed by endless product options at rock-bottom prices.
Each of these pressures is significant on its own. Together, they create a perfect storm of market conditions that are difficult for local fashion players to survive.
While furniture hasn’t been hit by dropshipping platforms in the same way, it faces a different challenge: logistics.
Shipping large, heavy items is expensive. Rising freight costs in 2024 made margins even tighter. Add in the complexities of delivery windows, assembly services, and returns, and it becomes tough for smaller players to compete with established brands that can absorb those costs or optimise operations at scale.
While we can't say shipping prices are solely to blame for rising closure rates in this category, they are a critical factor impacting profitability.
With over 50% of Danish consumers buying clothing online, and nearly 40% purchasing shoes, these categories are massively popular—and saturated.
Not every webshop can survive in such a crowded, price-sensitive market. Despite relative economic stability, consumer confidence in Denmark remains cautious. Reports from BCG and Nordea show low discretionary spending, which hits fashion and beauty especially hard.
An 11% closure rate may sound alarming, but it’s not entirely surprising. Tools like Shopify and WooCommerce have made it incredibly easy to launch a webshop - sometimes in less than a day. But low barriers to entry also mean low resilience. The easier it is to start, the easier it is to fail.
While a few large retailers have gone under, our data suggests that the majority of closures come from small and medium-sized businesses.
Still, it’s not all bad news. Over the same period, 2,645 new webshops were successfully launched. So while the market is churning, it’s also replenishing.
E-commerce is dynamic, and understanding it requires continuous tracking. At Tembi, we monitor 600,000+ webshops across Europe, updating our database bi-weekly. This enables us to:
Because in a market that never stands still, real-time intelligence is your competitive edge.
