Posted Meet Magento is coming for the first time to Norway on 16th November 2017!
It’s been in the making for almost two years as we touched on it with Katy Wilson, Channel Developer for Magento based in London when we met at Imagine 2016 but it’s really Convert who made it a reality! Convert is a Norwegian eCommerce Agency based in Oslo specialized in two things that are dear to our heart at OneStepCheckout: Magento 2 and Conversion Optimization (hence their name).
As a Norwegian company we couldn’t be more excited to share a little about our beautiful country and capital city, greet Magento rock stars on our shore and help local eCommerce stores get to the next level with Magento.
Here’s a teaser about Oslo, our little secret gem. We’d love to see you there! This video totally made the journalist from Inc. come and visit! More about this clever video here.
Top 3 things to know about Norway
1. Norway is the Happiest Country in the World, no less!
Norway has been named the Happiest Country in the World in 2017, according to The Sustainable Development Solutions Network that was commissioned by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012. As an outsider having lived there for two years I’d say the key reasons for that are around:
- Work life balance. Most people leave the office around 4pm and spend a lot of time doing other things they love i.e. sports, family etc…Norway also has one of the most generous maternity and paternity leave scheme (49 weeks 100% paid to be split between the mother and the father)
- Nature is amazing here. The air and water are pretty pure and we feel very safe here. The landscape of the country is pretty amazing with fjords and northern lights in the northern part of the country (no chance to see them in Oslo). You can go skiing after work. City trains take you to the mountains, lakes and forest, that’s where all the city dwellers spend their weekends.
- Equality and sense on community. Norwegians don’t leave people behind so they try and bridge the gap between the rich and the less advantaged with a lot of support from the welfare State. Norway has one of the lowest income inequality in the world, along with other Scandinavian countries.
2. Discover Norway through TV series and crime novels
Lilyhammer is awesome if you want to discover the cultural difference of Norwegians in particular vs Americans. This Netflix series features Steven Van Zandt (from the Sopranos) who plays a New York Mafia guy hiding in a small town in Norway.
Occupied is more of a fictional series where you can see actual Oslo landmarks and a good plot written by Jo Nesbo, a Norwegian football player, musician and financial analyst turned into one of the world’s best selling crime writer, selling over 33 million copies so far (across 50 languages).
3. Norway Trivia!
Geography: The population of all of Norway past 5M inhabitants (about that of Alabama!) and although it’s approx 2,000 km long (Oslo to the northern part of Norway is the same distance as Oslo to Rome!) it’s very narrow with the largest point being 432 km and narrowest point only 2 km wide!
Music: Grieg’s Pier Grynt for classical music lovers, a-ha for pop music lovers and Kygo for the younger hip generation. Oh and Ylvis (what does the fox say) for the humorous ones.
Painting: the Scream by Edvard Munch, the origins of this emoji ? !!!
Yup that’s what Anton, our developer, looks like when he works on checkout for Magento 2 😉
Norway’s brands and eCommerce market
Consumer Brands in Norway
Unlike it’s Swedish neighbour, Norway doesn’t have giant world-famous brands like Ikea, H&M and Volvo (and Abba and Ace of Base). However there might be some that you know:
Helly Hansen: popular outdoor sports brands with roots in sailing. And guess what, the global brands chose Magento to distribute its products worldwide! Even better, Chris Hammond and Theodore Tollefsen from their Global Digital team will be presenting key learnings about their migration to Magento 2 at the Meet Magento Norway event.
Stokke: if you are parents of young kids, you must know Stokke, their Tripp Trapp chair and their premium price positioning. Their online store is on Demandware… for now 😉
Voss Water, very popular in fancy venues in California (if you ever stayed at the Valencia hotel in San Jose), symbolizing extreme purity. Non transactional website (redirect to one of their distributor’s webshop)
Other Brands (that as a Magento community member you should really be familiar with…)
Opera Software: famous for their desktop web browser. Opera Software is also involved in promoting Web standards through participation in the W3C. In fact, their CTO Håkon Wium Lie is best known for proposing the concept of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)!
Varnish: funny story, The project was initiated by the online branch of the Norwegian tabloid newspaper Verdens Gang. You can’t get gossips fast enough right? Commercial support is available from Varnish Software, amongst others.
eCommerce market in Norway
Key fact, Internet penetration is very high in Norway with 97% Norwegians using the Internet. Of those, 3.2M shop online with an average spending per online shopper: €2,467.
E-commerce growth in 2015: 1.7% and is expected to reach 12.7% of all retail sales in 2018 (vs 8.5% in the US and on par with the UK). eCommerce B2C sales are expected to reach $16.4Bn by 2017.
Top eCommerce sites in Norway
Given the infographics above indicating that Travel account for a good 20% of B2C eCommerce sales, no wonder the Norwegian top ranking comprises of airlines including Norwegian.no, Sas.no Also based on the parcels I see at the post office (being myself an avid online shopper) I can say that Zalando and Blivakker have a fair bit of traction too.
Top 4 in terms of traffic (according to Alexa and SimilarWeb)
1. Finn.no: the mega marketplace of the Schibsted Group in Norway with 5.3M daily pageviews
2. Ebay.com with 8M daily age views
3. Komplett.no : 5.2M daily page views. Started selling online in 1995 and has since done very well . The largest online store with over $200M in revenue
4. Amazon.com with 8.7M daily page viewsWhat to expect at the Meet Magento Norge event?
The latest and greatest about Magento company, ecosystem and products
We’ll have the honor and pleasure to greet Ben Marks, Magento Evangelist, whose job is to travel around the world to gather passion about Magento. Typical updates that we hear first hand at Meet Magento events are:
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- How the company is growing, focus on Magento 2 sites to date,
- Growth of the ecosystem altogether
- Magento products releases and roadmaps, additional features and services, functionalities etc…
- The power of the Magento community
Magento Case studies and How to sessions
Learn from the best with case studies about Helly Hansen as well as Eplehuset (official distributor Apple products in Norway) which is one big complex project!
All those presentations will help you understand how you can best utilize the Magento platform to grow and meet your specific business needs.
Here is the full program of the event.
Networking
At the end of the day you always leave feeling inspired, wanting to apply what you’ve learned, try a few things. You might come back with a lot of answers to your Magento questions, good idea to come a little prepared. The Magento Community is totally solution oriented. Come with your key challenges and you’ll have lots of experienced people who have great input for you.
New to Oslo?
What to wear?
Rug up! November temperatures average 2 Celsius (35F). There could be snow and it could go as low as -7 Celsius. Beanie, gloves, Ugg boots, scarves, gotta bring them all!
How to get from the airport to the City?
First, welcome to Gardenmoen, the World’s Greenest Airport! Have a look around, soak in the Nordic feel with wood, light and space before rushing to the City 45 km south.
Fastest option: Flytoget airport express train. Depart every 10 min and takes 25 min to arrive in the city center. The train is clean, comfortable with Wifi and power plugs (Type F just like in Germany or France). Here is the Schedule
TIP: don’t queue to buy a ticket, just swipe your credit card at the gate and you’re done! Cost for one way: 180 Kr (€18). If you download the App and they take your credit card then it’s even easier, you can buy the ticket form the app and get electronic receipts for your travel expenses
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Less recommended: Taxi: it will take at least 40 min and over 1,000 Kr (€100) to get to the city.
Cheapest option: NSB railway. It’s only 90 Kr but they come less frequently.
Currency:
Norwegian Kroner:
- 1 USD = 7.81 NOK
- 1 EURO = 9.28 NOK
Do you need to withdraw much cash? Not really. Everyone uses debit/credit card, even for 10 NOK purchases at the bakery or convenience store.
Repeat after me:
Takk – thank you
Hei (pronounce “Hi!”) – er…. Hi
Nei – no
Magento: pronounce “Mayento”
Konverteringsoptimalisering – Conversion Optimization
Bra – fine, good!
You’ll be fine, Norwegian speaks good English.
Free ticket for Magento Merchants!
Register here!
50% off if you’re an agency or extension provider
The guys at Convert kindly offered to give our readers 50% off early bird special on the ticket price. That makes it 995 NOK (approx. €100) instead of 1,990 NOK for agencies, extension and service providers!
Use this coupon code: checkout50
BEFORE 5th November 27! After that you’ll pay full price.
Get your ticket now
See you there: 9am at Gamle Museet right by the Oslo Opera House in the City center and Akerhus old fortress! Need more tips for your visit in Oslo, send me a tweet.