Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> on Wednesday opened up its Swedish website, offering customers more than 150 million products across 30 categories, marking its first entry in the Nordics.
Swedish customers could already shop on Amazon through its websites in other European countries such as Germany, and get their purchases shipped in, but this often meant paying high delivery charges.
The new website, amazon.se, will also offer tens of thousands of products from Swedish businesses, said Alex Ootes, vice president for EU Expansion at Amazon.
Orders over 229 crowns and shipping from Amazon's distribution center would be delivered free of charge, the company said.
Most deliveries would be made by postal company Postnord and shoppers will also have the option of priority shipping, with packages delivered within two days.
Amazon's arrival in Sweden has been talked about for years and could be a challenge to retailers.
Shares of budget DIY and homewares retailer Clas Ohlson <CLASb.ST>, fashion specialist Boozt AB <BOOZT.ST>, and e-books seller Storytel <STORYb.ST> had edged lower in early August when Amazon had first disclosed https://de.reuters.com/article/amazoncom-sweden/update-1-amazon-starts-preparations-to-launch-in-sweden-idINL8N2F657F its intention to launch in Sweden.
This month, Amazon launched a 91-megawatt power project in Sweden to support Amazon Web Services data centres and expanding its retail business, and is expected to deliver 280,000-megawatt hours of clean energy a year for the Swedish grid.
(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Robert Birsel)
