Original story

RetailNET 24.8.2005

Finnish Net shoppers dissatisfied with current consumer goods distribution

According to a recent survey, citizens in high-tech Finland are very unhappy with the way their netshopping needs are met by the current consumer goods trade.

(Helsinki, Thursday)

What’s eating Finnish shoppers? An extensive consumer survey carried out by Gallup-Nielsen in this small Scandinavian republic, which still gamely advertises itself as “the most wired nation on earth”, indicates that only some 32% of respondents use the datanets for their current consumer goods shopping. The same study indicates, however, that an impressive 83% of households use the nets for buying other goods and services.

Finnish consumers are particularly browned off, it seems, by the distribution channels for their net groceries purchases. Two models exist, both dating from back in the 1990s, when this country (population just under 5 million in an area slightly larger than Nevada) embarked on its voyage of discovery in the world of networking, mobile telephony, and virtual reality. The so-called “kiosk model” was designed by Mika Panzar, then working for the National Consumer Administration. This called for goods to be held in short-term storage at neighbourhood kiosks or convenience stores, which offered ample space for cold storage of fresh produce. Consumers would then collect the products they had ordered online from these local outlets. The major objection to the NCA scheme has been the relatively long distances required (although far shorter than to the retailers actually supplying the goods) to go and collect the items. This system is more commonly found among smaller specialist shops, including the few specialist butchers and greengrocers left in the country, while the more typical megamarkets are mostly owned by large chains , who have devised their own distribution channels. The four main current consumer goods trading chains have their own delivery vans, which bring the goods direct to the customers’ homes. Here the problems have been rather different - what happens if the household is empty and there are no separate cold storage facilities outside for delivery services? Finland has enjoyed a warm, dry summer this year, and stores have been swamped with “Something rotten in the state of Finland” complaints about meat products going off, milk that is undrinkable, and frozen goods that have completely thawed out.

It is interesting to note that back in 1997 the then Lady Mayoress of Helsinki Ms. Eeva-Riitta Siitonen suggested that buildings should be fitted with exterior cold storage facilities - a kind of lockable refrigerator - for each apartment for just this purpose, in much the same way as all households have a mailbox. Nevertheless, these cold storage facilities for delivery trucks did not enter the city’s building codes until late in 2001, and they have been mandatory only on all new dwellings built from the beginning of this year. In some older apartment blocks the City has financed retrofit projects to convert other areas, for instance bicycle stores, into suitable refrigerated spaces.

The latest development in what seems to be an ongoing battle of wills is that the main retail chains have sent a jointly-signed memorandum to the municipal authorities, demanding that they promote more effectively the building of cold stores in old houses. This was greeted icily by the Confederation of Finnish Local Authorities, who replied that the precarious financial state of many smaller communities meant that building grants for such delivery storage were more likely to decline than increase. The CFLA then raised the spectre of the European Union, which has been discussing complaints over whether local communities should assist in the building of these kind of facilities in any shape or form. Municipalities in some EU member-states have complained that this is a kind of trade subsidy loophole for the retailers, and in direct contravention of EU regulations. If the EU Commission rules in favour of the municipalities, then the retailers themselves will have to assist in building the refrigerated storage, or alternatively abandon the online shopping experiment - something that would inevitably give an embarrassing dent to the country’s record in this field.

Toteuma-arvio 2026

Toteuma lyhyesti

  • Ilmiön toteuma: 5/5
  • Toteuma viiden vuoden tarkkuudella: kyllä; arviointi-ikkuna on 2000–2010
  • Toteuma väljemmällä aikahorisontilla: kyllä, erittäin vahvasti
  • Ilmiön ydin: verkkokaupan kasvu pakottaa päivittäistavarakaupan ratkaisemaan kotiinkuljetuksen, noutopisteet ja viimeisen kilometrin logistiikan.

Verkkoruokakauppa kohtasi juuri kuvatut keräilyn, toimitusaikojen, kylmäketjun ja kannattavuuden ongelmat. Kotiinkuljetuksen ja noutopalvelujen rinnakkaiset mallit ovat nykyään vakiintuneita.

Johtopäätös: ennuste toteutui vahvasti ja oikeassa aikaikkunassa.