The combined size and maturity of the Nordic shopping center industry is maybe surprising to some. In fact, the first purposely built enclosed shopping center in the world is not to be found in the USA. It is instead Shopping that opened October 1955 in the small town of Luleå in the very north of Sweden. And the developments have continued ever since so the region has the highest shopping center density in Europe.

The four countries Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden together cover an area of 1 555 145 square kilometers. Total population is 24,7 million. Avarage PPP per inhabitant was 2008 estimated at €37 145. Private consumption avarage some 45% where of approximately 35% is spent on pure retail. Total retail sales for 2007 amounted to 190 billion euros or € 7692 per inhabitant.

If we define a shopping center as a commercial area with minimum 5.000 sqm of GLA and 10 stores, run as an entity with common marketing and management, the four countries together have over 700 centers. The total GLA is 12 million sqm (app. 129 million square feet) which make up for 0,49 sqm per person. Retail sales in shopping centers for 2007 was approximately 44 billion euros or € 1781 per inhabitant.

The largest enclosed center is Itäkeskus in Helsinki, Finland, with app. 112.000 sqm GLA. Kungens Kurva, in Stockholm Sweden, is the largest big box and traditional retail mixed center, a retail park of app. 170.000 sqm of GLA. This is also the location for the first Nordic Heron City.

Real estate owners and operators
The largest shopping center owner in the region is Steen & Strøm, operating 55 centers in Denmark, Norway and Sweden with a total of close to 600 000 sqm of GLA. Citycon Oy has 33 centers in Finland, Sweden and the Baltics totalling some 494.000 sqm of GLA. Unibail-Rodamco Nordic operates 16 centers in Denmark, Finland and Sweden totalling 430.000 sqm of GLA. There are also a number of specialized national real estate companies. Olav Thon-Gruppen, Sektor Eiendomsutvikling and Amfi Eiendom are the largest in Norway. Atrium, ICA, and KF Fastigheter in Sweden. Denmark has Danica as major owner. On the management side Jones Lang LaSalle. NCM Donaldsons and Aberdeen Property Investors all operates across the borders.

Retail
Retail is extremely Inter-Nordic with a large number of national chains operating all four countries. To be mentioned are of course multi-nationals like H&M and IKEA, but there are also Indiska, JC, KappAhl, MQ, Lindex and Twilfit (all fashion) plus Stadium Sports from Sweden. Varner Group (Dressmann/Carlings/Cubus fashion) and Narvesen (multi retail) from Norway. Bestseller (Vero Moda,Only/Jack&Jones) and IC Companies (InWear/Jackpot/VPeak Performance/Tiger of Sweden) plus Elgiganten (home electronics) from Denmark. Asko (furniture), K-Rauta (do-it-yourself) and Pertti Palmrot (shoes and bags) from Finland, just to mention a few. Many new young Swedish brands such as Acne, Monkie, Nudie Jeans, Odd Molly and Filippa K are selling all over the world today.