A challenger has emerged for Shopify in the Norwegian ecommerce market. Co-created by entrepreneur Greg Taube, Famme combines an online store, payments, shipping, point-of-sale and accounting.
Famme uses Shopify, but Taube now wants to compete with it as a merchant, so Famme has also developed its own ecommerce system – and has put its first customer into operation.
How it works
Shipping and label generation are built into ReAI through its partnership with QuickShip. Businesses can access shipping services directly within the platform, even when using their own warehouse. Shipping costs are based on the merchant’s agreement and shipment details, and are not included for free.
Payments are powered by Adyen, offering an alternative to Shopify Payments. Supported methods include card payments, Vipps, Apple Pay and Google Pay, where enabled. ReAI also includes POS functionality, allowing retailers to manage online and in-store sales from a single product data source.
The competition
Shopify dominates the ecommerce landscape in most of the West. North America is its largest market, followed by the UK, which has seen an aggressive consolidation toward Shopify by both independent merchants and major high-street names. With over 229,000 shopfronts in the UK, Shopify controls 40% of the market share, comfortably ahead of its rivals WooCommerce and Wix.
Taube emphasises that Famme is aimed at the Norwegian market, and highlights the benefits of a market-specific ecommerce system in delivering for its customers. The company aims to streamline and simplify the process of selling online for its customers by bringing store operations and accounting together around Norwegian needs, reducing the need for separate apps and integrations.
“Our ambition is for a Norwegian business to get more of what it needs within the product itself. EHF, Norwegian shipping and purchasing should work together with sales, rather than becoming separate projects,” Taupe said.
“We are not aiming to cover every market. We want to build a product for Norwegian businesses, with as much as possible in place from the start. This is a long-term investment, and we want to develop it with the people who actually run shops here,” he added.
The real test will be whether Norwegian retailers value localisation over Shopify’s vast ecosystem. If they do, Famme’s merchant-turned-platform approach could prove that there is still room for regional challengers in a market dominated by global giants.
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