The American market holds tremendous potential for Scandinavian brands.
“It’s so unfortunate to hear that Swedish brands hesitate when it comes to launching in the USA. The American market holds tremendous potential for Scandinavian brands, and we want to help our customers launch on a small scale and grow over time,” says Martina Arfwidson, President of FACE Stockholm and co-founder of Scandinavian Marketplace.
How it started
A bankruptcy, a business romance, and an identified market need led our founders to start the TPL company Scandinavian Marketplace, which is designed to help Swedish retail businesses easily kick-start sales in the USA. Martina Arfwidson and Cecilia Hjertzell first met when Martina needed to secure a suitable warehouse for FACE Stockholm’s operations, and Cecilia was searching for a seamless way to launch a licensing business in the USA for the athletic brand Power Woman, which she was then involved with. Cecilia incorporated Martina’s needs into her warehouse procurement, and Martina opened her warehouse in Hudson, New York, for Power Woman’s American expansion.
Unfortunately, Power Woman faced significant liquidity challenges, and when the Swedish brand went bankrupt, our new friends found themselves without a joint project. However, the desire to continue working together and the knowledge of both the challenges and opportunities in the American market quickly led them to launch a new joint venture – Scandinavian Marketplace – the ultimate go-to-market partner. The company’s clear goal is to enable a Scandinavian brand to launch in the USA within 30 days.
The service offer
Scandinavian Marketplace provides warehouse and logistics services, as well as financial management solutions. Customers looking to launch their sales in the USA can, with our help, sell directly through the Scandinavian Marketplace e-shop, through their own e-shop with Scandinavian Marketplace acting as distributor handling all sales-related finances, or, if the customer already has an American entity, we manage only the warehousing and logistics.
We want to offer a solution that covers the entire establishment journey, explains Cecilia Hjertzell, who handles our Swedish customer contacts from Stockholm.
Starting a company in the USA can be time-consuming and costly. We want to provide an opportunity for a soft launch where all focus can be on sales and marketing. Once the brand is established, we can assist with financial services to streamline the process.
On the American side, our co-founders include Martina Arfwidson, President of the family business FACE Stockholm, and Joe Pizza, who has managed FACE Stockholm’s warehouse for over 20 years. “I have only run companies in the USA, even though I understand the Swedish market well. Together, our trio brings the network and expertise that smaller retail brands need to launch in the USA,” says Martina.
Just as many of our customers have hoped, Scandinavian Marketplace has quietly kicked off its operations. Today, the company counts Power Woman and Minimoca Sweden as retail clients, and we are in discussions with several other interested brands. In addition, we are currently assisting one client with accounting and tax reporting.
“It has been incredibly satisfying to set up all our processes before fully opening our doors, and now we are ready to welcome more Scandinavian brands that want to establish themselves in the USA.”, says Cecilia.
About Scandinavian Marketplace
Scandinavian Marketplace offers warehousing and logistics services from our own facility in Hudson, New York. Through our e-commerce platform, scandinavianmarketplace.com, our customers can quickly start selling on the American market with products stored in the USA. We also serve as a legal entity for customers who want to operate their own e-commerce business without having to establish a company, managing all taxes and administration as their distributor. We also offer accounting, tax declarations, and postbox services among other attractive services for Swedish companies and small angel investors.
