One of our focus areas at Twingly is e-commerce. Our solutions help dozens of major online shops to connect with the blogosphere and by that increase traffic and sales. Thus we are always interested in staying up to date about the latest trends in e-commerce. If we understand our clients we can make better products to serve their needs.

We just took some time to go through the results of a fresh report about the e-commerce year 2012 in Sweden (the home country of Twingly), and we thought we highlight some of the most significant developments and trends in this blog post. Naturally the state of the e-commerce sector varies from country to country, but the general direction and outlook is similar everywhere: More people buy more stuff on the Internet, via traditional computers and increasingly on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.

If you want to work yourself through the full report in Swedish you can download it form here (PDF). Otherwise, have a look at the following bullet points which we think are most relevant for readers of the Twingly blog:

> In 2012, 40 percent of the Swedish consumers bought at least one Christmas present online.

> 73 percent of Swedish consumers have bought something online in the last quarter 2012.

> Only 8 percent of Swedish consumers have never purchased something online.

> The product categories that generated the most revenue in 2012 were electronics followed by fashion, books and sport/leisure.

> The list of product categories that most consumers have said to have purchased from in 2012 is led by books including audio books, followed by fashion, computers and computer equipment, home electronics, movies and CDs.

> The frequency of buying things online was almost identically between women and men, but there are some gender-specific differences regarding the most popular product categories, i.e. men buy more computers and women by more books on the web.

> 19 percent of all consumers in Sweden have at least one time purchased a product via tablet or smartphone in 2012.

> 3 percent of the consumers have made their latest product purchase after finding information about it in social media. The most common way of finding a product to buy is through friends or acquaintances, which led 17 percent of the consumers to their most recent buying decision.

> If being asked about the prefered source for information about products online, 54 percent mentioned comparison engines, 41 percent friends and acquaintances, and already 11 percent favour social media to find goods to buy on the web.

> 92 percent of the consumers named comprehensive and clear information about products as one important criteria for a good e-commerce offering – which is exactly why we offer our eTrade solution.