Swedish ecommerce trends Q2 2026: shoppers want returns as flexible as delivery

PostNord's E-barometern for the second quarter of 2026 shows Swedish ecommerce growing 8%, with every measured category up for the second quarter running. We read the report's delivery and returns chapters for what shoppers now expect after the order, and where those expectations run ahead of what retailers offer.

PostNord and HUI Research published E-barometern Q2 2026 on 22 September. The quarterly report has tracked Swedish ecommerce since 2006. This edition draws on 83 online retailers and five consumer surveys run through Kantar's web panel between May and July 2026, and it puts the purchase journey at its center: payments, deliveries and returns. PostNord will publish the English edition later this autumn, so the figures below come from the Swedish report, in our translation.

PostNord's Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish services are all in our carrier library, and nShift Checkout can use PostNord's Delivery Options API to show shoppers when and where a PostNord parcel will arrive. Our take on last year's Q2 report compared delivery habits across the four Nordic markets, and in April we visited PostNord's headquarters in Solna to talk through Nordic commerce in 2026 with PostNord's Jan Jakobsson and nShift's Johan Hellman, from cross-border buying to secondhand. The full conversation is available to watch.

PostNord's own summary of the Q2 2026 delivery chapter is that consumers' wishes are running ahead of what's on offer. The returns chapter makes the same case: 16% of shoppers prefer to return via a parcel locker, and only one in three retailers offers it.

Key findings in one glance

• Growth is broad. Ecommerce grew 8% against Q2 2025, led by pharmacy (13%), groceries (10%) and consumer electronics (10%).

• Checkout trust affects the sale. Nearly four in ten shoppers abandoned a purchase in the past year because of problems or uncertainty around payment, and 61% name verification, such as BankID, as the most important part of a safe checkout.

• The parcel locker is the only delivery method that has grown clearly every year since 2020. It took 19% of shoppers' most recent deliveries in Q2 2026, up from 3% in 2020.

• Returns are moving toward lockers and stores. 16% of shoppers now prefer to return via a parcel locker (6% in 2021), yet only one in three retailers offers it. 53% say returning an online purchase in a physical store should be easier.

• A lower return rate can signal friction. 53% of shoppers have returned an unwanted purchase from abroad, against 65% for online purchases overall, and "too complicated" is the most common reason for keeping something they didn't want.

Ecommerce is growing again, and nearly four in ten shoppers have abandoned a purchase over payment doubts

Swedish ecommerce grew 8% in the second quarter compared with the same period last year, and all eight categories PostNord measures grew: pharmacy 13%, groceries 10%, consumer electronics 10%, building supplies 9%, sports and leisure 8%, clothing and shoes 5%, furniture and home furnishing 4%, and books and media 2%. "For the first time in a long while, the question is no longer whether ecommerce will recover, but how fast it can grow," said Ylva Staszewski, head of PostNord Sweden's parcel business, in the launch release (our translation).

Nearly four in ten consumers abandoned an online purchase in the past year because of problems or uncertainty with the payment. Among shoppers who abandoned a purchase, 37% were unsure whether the payment was secure, 31% doubted whether the webshop itself was genuine, and 36% left because their preferred payment method was missing. When PostNord asked what makes a checkout feel safe, 61% named verification through BankID or Freja eID, ahead of recognizable payment options (57%) and a webshop that feels trustworthy (39%).

PostNord calls this "safe friction": a step that adds time but reassures the shopper. Staszewski describes security as having become "hard currency" (our translation).

PostNord notes that shoppers make an overall judgment at checkout, where verification, the payment provider and the retailer's credibility together shape whether a purchase feels safe. Delivery options appear on the same page, and one in five shoppers found them unclear at their most recent purchase. Our piece on why vague delivery ETAs cost Nordic retailers at checkout made the same case for concrete delivery information.

Delivery preferences are ahead of what checkouts offer

The parcel locker is the only delivery method that has grown clearly every year since PostNord started measuring it in 2020. PostNord links that growth to more lockers being placed and more retailers offering them. Home delivery has declined from 38% in 2022 to 30% in Q2 2026. PostNord attributes part of that decline to changed delivery conditions: since November 2025, pharmacy parcels that can't go in the mailbox or be handed over in person must go to a parcel locker or service point.

Source: PostNord, E-barometern Q2 2026, page 28. Base: consumers who have shopped online.

PostNord also compares how shoppers received their last parcel with how they would have preferred to receive it. Nearly half of shoppers received their last parcel at a service point, while only around a third say it's the method they'd have preferred. By PostNord's calculation, almost one in five shoppers who collected from a service point would have chosen a different method if they could. Lockers and home delivery are both used less than shoppers would like.

Shoppers who prefer lockers mostly value collecting outside normal opening hours (62%). Service points are preferred for being close to home or work (42%) and for combining the pickup with other errands (40%). Most also had a choice within the method: 74% of those who collected from a service point could pick which one.

Six in ten shoppers who had their last parcel delivered home could not choose the delivery time, and one in ten skipped home delivery because they weren't sure they'd be in. Shoppers still pay for delivery changes: 29% have paid extra to change how an order was delivered, up from 19% in 2019. Among them, though, the share who paid for home delivery fell from 58% in 2020 to 37% in 2026. PostNord's reading is that shoppers will pay for what adds value, and flexibility is now at the top of that list.

At checkout, one in three shoppers have abandoned a purchase because the delivery option they preferred wasn't offered. PostNord also found that what shoppers need to see depends on what they buy: grocery shoppers weigh clear delivery times more heavily, while shoppers buying for the home and leisure put more weight on options being shown clearly and separately.

Retailers have to choose, order by order, which delivery options to show. With nShift Checkout, delivery conditions and the rule engine decide which delivery options, services, prices and add-ons a shopper sees, including by postcode and price step, and estimated delivery times can be switched on per delivery option, calculated from the sending and receiving postal codes. For PostNord parcels, Checkout can also draw on PostNord's Delivery Options API, which returns the expected delivery time and where the parcel will be delivered, such as a parcel locker or service point. Stadium, the Swedish sports retailer, used Checkout to let customers choose between home delivery, pickup points and in-store collection.

"For Stadium, it is important to always follow the customer's wishes. It is important for our customers to be able to choose where and when their package is shipped in an easy manner."

Fredrik Persson, CDO, Stadium

A wider delivery menu also needs a carrier setup to match, which we covered in our reading of DHL's 2026 ecommerce trends report.

Three in four shoppers trust Swedish retailers to keep the delivery promise

More than eight in ten shoppers actively followed their most recent delivery. The updates they value most are the ones that help them plan: confirmation that the webshop received the order (74%), the estimated delivery time (55%) and notice that the order has left the warehouse (47%). Updates such as a stock check or a parcel passing a distribution center rank far lower, at 13 to 14%.

A delivery app is both the most common and the most preferred way to follow a parcel. PostNord points out that retailers offering tracking in their own app or channel keep in touch with the customer after the purchase. Interest in SMS updates has fallen since last year, which PostNord connects to the rise in SMS fraud. As with payment, shoppers want to know who a message comes from.

Three in four shoppers feel confident that Swedish online retailers keep their delivery promise; only one in three say the same about foreign retailers, and 87% were satisfied with their most recent delivery, a level that has held steady in recent years. nShift Track keeps delivery updates in the retailer's own branded experience, and our piece on what shoppers look for in order tracking covers the details.

Returns are moving toward the locker and the store

Transport industry figures cited in the report put the number of ecommerce parcels returned in Sweden at 5.1 million in Q2 2026. The service point still takes most of them. The mix is shifting: store returns are up, and the preference for locker returns has nearly tripled since 2021.

Source: PostNord, E-barometern Q2 2026, pages 34 and 35. The "used" columns are based on consumers who have made a return; the "preferred" columns on all consumers who have shopped online, so the two sets of figures are not directly comparable.

Parcel lockers. 16% of shoppers now prefer to return via a locker, up from 6% in 2021, when lockers first became a return option. Among frequent online shoppers the share is 20%, against 10% among those who shop online less than once a month. Yet only 11% used a locker for their most recent return, and only one in three retailers offers locker returns at all. PostNord asks whether the parcel locker is heading for its second boom, this time in returns.

Stores. Store returns rose from 10% to 16% of shoppers' most recent returns between 2022 and 2026. And 53% of shoppers think returning an online purchase in a physical store should be easier, up from 50% a year ago. The report also shows how much shoppers already mix channels in store: seven in ten have used a retailer's app or website while in a physical store, most often to check stock in that store (42%).

Return timing differs by place. Close to half of shoppers in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö return an item as soon as possible, compared with 35% in small towns. City shoppers also more often fit the return into other errands or the trip to work, helped by having more return points close by.

PostNord's own conclusion is that the next step for retailers is to tie the parcel locker, the service point and the store into one return journey that is as easy to choose as delivery.

Each return route creates a different record: a carrier scan at a locker or service point, a transaction at a store till, a scan when the parcel reaches the warehouse. If each route runs as its own process, customer service, the warehouse and the store each see a different part of the same return.

In nShift Returns, the shopper chooses the return type (return, exchange or claim), gives a reason and the item's condition, and picks the shipping or drop-off method, and status tracking starts from registration, so every route begins with the same record.

Hunkemöller, the lingerie retailer, replaced printed return labels with a digital returns flow in nShift Returns, giving customers a consistent, guided way to return items through any channel. Since going live, Hunkemöller has seen a 15% shift from return-to-warehouse to in-store returns, and its warehouse teams see expected return volumes days in advance.

"We've made returns part of a seamless omnichannel customer experience with increased returns control and insights. What was a historical pain point for the company and our customers has been changed into something that adds real value."

Robin Visser, Omni Channel Business Development Manager, Hunkemöller

A low return rate can mean high return friction

The return rate for Swedish ecommerce fell in the first half of 2026 while the number of ecommerce parcels grew.

Part of the fall comes from growth in what PostNord calls segments where returning an item was never a given. One in three ecommerce parcels in Q2 2026 came from abroad, against one in six in Q2 2022. At least 12% of all ecommerce parcels were secondhand, against 3% in Q2 2023. Pharmacy products, the fastest-growing category, are rarely returned. Price-conscious shoppers are also making fewer impulse purchases.

The other part is friction. 53% of shoppers have returned an unwanted purchase from abroad, against 65% for online purchases overall. The gap is closing: the figure for purchases from abroad was 37% in 2024, and PostNord notes that foreign retailers have adapted their return terms to the Swedish market. When shoppers keep something they didn't want, the most common reasons are that returning it was too complicated or they couldn't be bothered (34%, rising to 40% for purchases from abroad) and that the item was worth too little to send back (33%, or 37% for purchases from abroad). Some resell the item instead.

PostNord's heading for that page: a low return rate can be a sign of high return friction. A return that never happens can mean the purchase was right.

Retailers learn more from the return rate when they read it alongside the return journey itself: how many returns are registered and completed, which routes shoppers use, and why items come back. On prevention, PostNord's shoppers ask for the basics: clear product images (53%), clear information on product features (53%) and size guides with measurements (39%). Return reasons show which of those is missing for which product. nShift Returns captures return reasons per product category, and its analytics scores products by their order and return patterns, so product teams can see where to start.

Shoppers see a role for AI in research, and still choose by reviews

PostNord also looked at how shoppers find products. Its 2025 annual report found that shoppers see the most use for AI early in the journey, for inspiration and comparisons, but actual behavior has yet to follow. Shoppers still mostly start in a webshop or a search engine, and just over half go straight to the brand's own webshop to find and choose products. Half of shoppers say customer reviews are their most important aid when choosing the right product.

PostNord adds that reviews give context to AI tools as well as to people, which becomes more valuable as AI takes a bigger role in the purchase journey. Delivery and returns information works the same way: the options, prices and return routes a retailer offers need to be as clear to a system reading the page as to a shopper, a point we took further in our look at AI shopping agents and the delivery promise.

What to take into Q4 planning

With growth back and peak season ahead, these are the checks we would run first:

• Compare the delivery options you offer with the ones shoppers want. One in three have abandoned a purchase when their preferred option was missing, and service points are used more than they are preferred.

• Check how clearly the options are presented. One in five shoppers found them unclear, and the right presentation depends on the category.

• Add locker returns where your carriers support them. Preference has nearly tripled since 2021, and only one in three retailers offers the option.

• Connect store returns to the online order. 53% of shoppers want store returns to be easier, and a store return is easier to handle when the store, the warehouse and customer service see the same record.

• Read the return rate alongside the return journey. A falling rate can include returns that shoppers gave up on.

PostNord's numbers are a useful check on whether your return options now match your delivery options, across lockers, service points and stores. The nShift platform connects delivery choice at checkout, carrier execution, tracking and returns.