There is no country-specific Amazon store in Norway, so what are your options for buying goods from the world's biggest online retailer?
“Oh that looks good. I'll go and order that now on my phone. It'll be here tomorrow morning”.
Sometimes it's hard to believe that your retired mother can make better use of technology than you!
But lacking the next-day delivery benefits of Amazon Prime is just one of the many things you get used to when living in Norway. Online shopping in Norway isn't as fast as in the U.K. or the United States.
A global behemoth
It's hard to imagine a world without Amazon but the company isn't even 25 years old. Founder Jeff Bezos remembers the very first book he sold from his garage when Amazon was a mere online bookstore. It was called Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.
Fast-forward to today and Amazon is one of the most famous companies in the world. Not only have they expanded beyond books into almost all aspects of e-commerce, the company is also one of the world's biggest suppliers of cloud-based IT infrastructure.
Along with the flagship Amazon.com store, the company runs country-specific stores for Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.
You'll note that Norway isn't on that list. Neither are our Nordic neighbours Denmark, Sweden, Iceland or Finland. However, that doesn't mean that Norwegians can't shop on Amazon! I receive packages around once a month, plus I buy most of my eBooks from the platform, too.
Let's take a look at how residents of Norway can use Amazon for their online shopping needs.
The problem with online shopping in Norway
When moving to Norway from the UK or USA, online shopping here can seem like a throwback to ten or twenty years ago. The reasons boil down to the fact that Norway is a very large country with a small population.
Read more: The pros and cons of living in Norway
This creates a major headache for any logistics provider, and even with the increased competition of late deliveries tend to take at least 2-3 days and come at an eye-wateringly high cost. More often than not, items are delivered not to your door but to a ‘collection point', which may or may not be within walking distance of your home.
Things get even worse when ordering products from abroad. At the time of writing any product priced over NOK 350 is subject to MVA (the Norwegian VAT) and processing fee, if the item is stopped by customs. Frustratingly, the NOK 350 limit includes delivery charges.
Some goods above this limit get through, of course, but it's always a bit of a lottery. Exceptions to this rule include physical books, as they are MVA-exempt within Norway.
To make matters worse, the current coalition government is considering lowering this limit even further in a bid to boost the competitiveness of retailers within Norway. The problem is that the selection of goods available from Norwegian online stores is extremely poor, so in many cases people have no option but to buy from abroad.
Step forward Amazon.
Buying goods from Amazon.co.uk
There's little doubt that the Amazon UK store is the most popular option for online shoppers living in Norway.
Although the German store is also close by, almost everyone in Norway feels comfortable using English online. The UK store also has one of the biggest selections of goods of any of the country-specific stores, and delivery tends to cost less and be significantly quicker than from the US store.
However, the problem of import duty described above mean that your parcel could be subject to additional fees and delays courtesy of Norwegian customs.
Because of their tax-exempt status in Norway, physical books are some of the best bargains to be had from Amazon.co.uk. If you are ordering more than one, delivery charges become quite reasonable compared with Norwegian bookstores.
How to buy Kindle books in Norway
When it comes to digital goods including Kindle ebooks, global licensing rules come into play. Generally, this means that if you reside in Norway you cannot buy digital media from the UK store. Licenses from the UK store cover UK residents only.
Residents of Norway – and countless other countries around the world – are therefore supposed to buy Kindle books from the Amazon.com Kindle store, even if they ordered their Kindle device from the UK!
This often trips up Norwegians who buy a device on a shopping trip to London and naturally head to the Kindle store on Amazon.co.uk. There have been stories in the Norwegian media of people having their accounts deleted by Amazon for using the wrong store.
There is an advantage of buying Kindle books from the global store as the selection tends to be greater than in any country-specific store. However, the Kindle Unlimited program is only available to people in certain countries. That list currently excludes Norway.
Shopping on Amazon.com
As the biggest Amazon site in the world, many people naturally and up on Amazon.com when searching for goods. For one thing, many online links point to the main store. There are benefits including a greater selection and (in many cases) cheaper prices, however, there are many downsides too.
Goods imported from outside Norway are liable for extensive customs duty and lengthy delivery times. This often causes frustration and the added fees can make the total cost more expensive than shopping from the UK store or an alternative retailer in Norway. Delivery times from the USA can be several weeks, even without a customs check.
Many smaller, low-cost items don't get stopped, but anything in a large box or carrying a large price tag is highly likely to be stopped by Norwegian customs.
What to do when an item “can't be shipped” to Norway
While Amazon has an official policy of shipping its products to Norway, things get more complex when you consider their Fulfilment by Amazon program. Many items people buy from Amazon are not actually sold by Amazon, but by third-parties who pay Amazon to sell and deliver goods on their behalf.
These third-party sellers choose the countries they will and won't ship to, and Norway is often included on the latter list. In these circumstances there are a number of options open to you.
Firstly, check the other country-specific stores close to Norway (UK and Germany) and the international Amazon.com store for alternative availability.
Secondly, you can choose to use a forwarding service from the UK, whereby they receive the parcel from Amazon in the UK and send it on to you in Norway. This generally costs at least GBP £15 per package, so this only makes sense for expensive items. We have never used such a service, so if you have, let us know how it went for you.
Your third option is to shop on alternative marketplaces, or even seek out the item in Norway!
Alternatives to Amazon in Norway
There is no one store that comes close to doing what Amazon does within Norway. Known universally as Norway's online marketplace, Finn.no is most people's first thought, although the shopping portion of the site is better compared to eBay.
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Not just an issue to buying goods in Norway, it is almost impossible to buy Norwegian goods in the UK, a small selection of foodstuffs being the exception, and then only in one or two rare shops! I have been trying to buy some Wilfa electrical goods to no avail!
Amazon is not a societal good. It is actually the low tax, low wage environment, poor working conditions, and low first-class postage rates that have created the Amazon juggernaut to the detriment of brick and mortar retail. It is no great loss that it isn’t available in Norway.
Agree with everything you said, except the conclusion. The problem in Norway is when You are acquiring something not very ordinary. You do not find many things, and if you find something, it is guaranteed overpriced. Overpriced in comparison to similar item in Norwegian market, not to other markets.
Agree with Cameron, it is with very good reason that Amazon isn’t encouraged here, large corporation who don’t pay their taxes or contribute to the economy while also bring being detrimental to the environment, its a lose lose for the country as a whole.
For the Kindle issues, a VPN works well. In fact, Nordvpn is ideal and cheap. In addition to enabling purchases on UK websites, it also enables viewing UK TV such as BBC. And buying Kindle books may avoid some (not all) of the valid criticisms raised above about Amazon in general, as well as offering a fair deal for the ultimate authors. A VPN also resolves some security/privacy issues at the same time, so worth considering for all manner of reasons beyond accessing the UK Kindle store.
I’ve noticed recently that Amazon have started only using special delivery to Norway (at high cost), and also charging expected tax at purchase (rather than at delivery). Put me off a bit.
I just spent two weeks in Oslo and had a splendid time. I was surprised at the healthy retail environment, with very few empty storefronts and thriving malls. Contrast that with the US, empty storefronts everywhere, dead, empty big box stores and huge, empty shopping malls. Norway would be very smart to keep Amazon out. You will be sorry when all your mom and pop shops are shuttering their doors. Thanks for a lovely 2 weeks, Norse people! I can’t wait to visit your beautiful city again!
Is it allowed to order supplements like glutathione with collagen and deliver it here in Norway?
The problem in Norway is the limited availability of leading edge consumer goods that are readily available in other countries, sometimes just across the border in Sweden or Denmark. Yes, Norway does make many fine products and should protect their national producers, but what if, say, you’re an athlete that wants the top of the line sports equipment (that other competitors are using), or it is simply a product not made or sold in Norway, like a replacement screen for a Samsung Galaxy 10. With shipping and taxes, one ends up paying double or more.
With the 350 NOK exemption going away next month, it is going to kill e-commerce in Norway for normal folks.
agreed! Please keep large big box stores out, otherwise it will be the country’s downfall..
Please do NOT keep large online stores from norway,. Norway has exelent produkts but not fore poor People,. What I, and many of my friends want to bye is art supplies, fore us its very expensiv in norway, generely expensiv fore poor People in norway. Please let’s have Amazon.
It might seem fine to keep Amazon etc out. Until you need to buy something you either can’t find or it’s so ridiculously expensive. (if you’re not dealing with heavy stuff, but small parts, etc.) Hypothetically, there is a way, ship them home, have them opened, lightly used, and remove any invoices, and whoops you might just have ‘accidentally’ left your Chromebook or whatever at home, and as it is used just assign yard sale value on customs declaration and add personal property. Even if they want to charge you 300 percent duty or whatever–not too shocking on a 10 dollar USED yard sale value item… Lol.. though, I am not advising anyone to do this–just a hypothetical
Oh, I forgot to add…be extremely cautious in shipping pharmauticals or supplements to Norway (from anywhere incl Sweden, etc.) Even some multivitamins can trip you up. The first time, you may get a letter explaining how your stuff will be scheduled for destruction unless you already have a special import permit. The second time… who knows… (if you need medicine not available in Norway such as say Ativan (lorazepam) or Flexeril (cyclobenzaprine), etc…there is a somewhat cumbersome procedure a Norwegian doctor may initiate for you to obtain these)
I am an Amazon employee in the US. The wiring conditions are fine. The pay is good. But, that depends on location. The people that complain about working at amazon tend to have no or low work ethics. These are the purple that jump from job to job. Every company pays low in the US. But, that’s a another issue to discuss.