The e-commerce platform companies choose is often discussed based on theoretical features, but a new analysis by Adrelevance has instead examined which platforms practically drive the Swedish sites with the highest visibility on Google. By examining the pages' source code, network traffic, and cookies, the technology behind the majority of the sites could be determined.
Of the selection of 466 sites, the platform could be identified for 226 of them. An additional 62 sites use a so-called headless solution on the client side, while 162 sites rely on custom-built solutions or hidden frameworks.
Optimizely and Askås At The Top In Volume
The mapping shows that Optimizely (formerly Episerver) is used by 30 of the analyzed sites, ten of which are among the 50 highest ranked. Companies such as ICA, Coop, Rusta and Apoteket use this solution. The median position for Optimizely's customers in the visibility ranking is 81.
The Swedish platform Askås ranks second with 22 identified customers, primarily within the mid-market and niche retail. Adobe Commerce (Magento) follows with 21 customers, including Bauhaus and Mekonomen.
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Shopify is used by 18 of the mapped companies. The analysis indicates that the platform is not only used by smaller e-commerce companies in Sweden, as players such as Bubbleroom and Borås Tapeter are among the users. Geins (formerly Jetshop) drives 17 sites and has a widespread presence specifically within the Swedish shoe industry, with customers such as Scorett and Dinsko.
Custom-Built Is Most Common
Among the 50 most visible e-commerce sites, there is no single commercial platform that is most common. Instead, 18 of these 50 players build their e-commerce on custom-built in-house solutions. Companies such as IKEA, Apotea, H&M and Webhallen belong to this category. The report concludes that when e-commerce companies reach large volumes and have specific business logic, custom-built code tends to be more resource-defensible than customizations of standardized SaaS services.
Headless Architecture Complicates
The data also shows that "headless" is an integrated standard. A total of 62 of the sites use a headless frontend, such as Next.js or Nuxt. However, a headless solution says nothing about which business system manages the logic in the background. Through deeper network analysis, the backend could be determined for 27 of these sites. Norce was the most common system (12 sites, including Cervera and Royal Design), followed by Centra (9 sites, including Björn Borg and Tyngre).