Online Offers Increasingly Popular

Today is Black Friday, and numerous Icelandic stores are advertising discounts.

“I’m not worried there will be too many people inside the building, since the lines are long,” Tinna Jóhannsdóttir, marketing director for Smáralind shopping mall, Kópavogur, tells Morgunblaðið . “People don’t want to stand in line all day. I think most people will take advantage of online offers.”

In order to spread the traffic and adhere to disease prevention rules, operation hours are extended to 10 pm at Smáralind and to midnight at Kringlan shopping mall, Reykjavík. Guards will ensure that customers standing in line follow the 2-meter social distancing rule.

Sigurjón Örn Þórðarson, CEO of Kringlan, states that in recent months, shopping on Kringlan’s website has increased manifold. The stores, he adds, increasingly offer their products online.

Tinna states that clearly, customers arrive at the shopping mall better prepared than before, intending to purchase specific products instead of going from store to store, browsing.

Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, online shopping accounted for 3 percent of all domestic purchases. In April, that ratio reached 9.1 percent, but fell to 3.9 percent during the summer while infections were few. During the month of October, the ratio had increased to 7.3 percent, and Árni Sverrir Hafsteinsson, retail researcher, expects record online purchases in November.