OP Pohjola survey: Chinese online stores are particularly popular among men for their Christmas shopping – product safety requires special attention
According to OP Pohjola’s card data, the popularity of Chinese online stores has grown significantly in recent years. Chinese online stores are clearly more tempting for Christmas shopping for men than women in Finland. Even though the cheap prices and wide range of products can be tempting, the insufficient product safety, particularly of rechargeable electronics, may increase the risk of fire.
Christmas shopping is at its busiest at the moment. According to a survey by OP Pohjola, 35% of the respondents buy all their presents in person, such as in department stores or brick-and-mortar stores. Around 45% of the people in Finland buy their Christmas presents both online and in physical stores. Only roughly 3% of the respondents do all their Christmas shopping online.
“In addition to Finnish online stores, people in Finland are tempted to buy from foreign online stores. According to the survey, a fifth of the respondents buy Christmas presents from international online stores. These include cheap Chinese online stores, which have grown more popular in the recent years,” says Masa Peura, Senior Vice President of Everyday Banking at OP Pohjola.
According to the survey OP Pohjola conducted, cheap Chinese online stores are clearly more popular among men: nearly a third of men have already bought or could buy Christmas presents from a Chinese online store. In the survey, 19% of the men would consider buying Christmas presents from Alibaba, AliExpress, Shein or Temu, and 11% of the men have already bought Christmas presents from these online stores and will continue to do so in future.
Women have more negative attitudes towards cheap Chinese stores than men. Among women, 82% say that they have never bought nor would ever buy Christmas presents from Alibaba, AliExpress, Shein or Temu. Of the men who responded to the survey, 67% have an equally strict view about buying Christmas presents from a Chinese store.
According to OP Pohjola’s card data, the popularity of Chinese online stores has grown significantly in recent years. When measured in euros, purchases from these types of stores have grown by roughly 156% when comparing the figures from 1–9/2024 and 1–9/2025. The popularity of Temu has particularly increased in terms of the size of transactions measured in euros according to card data from OP Pohjola.
“The generally weaker economic environment and increase in prices might explain the popularity of Chinese stores. In this economic situation, people in Finland might be looking for somewhere to do more affordable Christmas shopping. According to the OP Pohjola survey, 38% of the people in Finland are going to spend significantly or slightly less money on Christmas shopping than last year. When making online purchases, you should also consider product quality and environmental impacts,” says Peura.
The main area for saving is Christmas presents: 81% of the respondents who are going to spend less money than last year said that they will save money on Christmas presents.
Cheap may become costly – electronics involve the risk of fire
When buying from a Chinese online store, there are often challenges with product safety. You should be particularly careful with electronics.
“You should buy electronics from a familiar and reliable brand. Products should always include CE markings indicating that the product meets the EU-regulated safety, health and environmental requirements,” says Sini Kujala, Claims Team Manager at Pohjola Insurance.
A cheap and unknown Chinese device bought from a foreign online store may not meet the EU safety requirements. Another problem with Chinese online stores is that the products might have fake CE markings. A product ordered from China might have a CE marking, but it stands for China export.
“Different rechargeable devices can be especially risky. Charging powerful batteries at home has increased the number of battery-related fires. “No devices should be left charging completely without supervision,” says Kujala.
Tukes would also like to remind that the buyer is held liable when they buy products from stores outside the EU. In such cases, there is no responsible party in Europe to whom you could return the dangerous product and claim compensation.
“Insurance companies do not restrict compensation because the product that caused the damage or loss had been bought from a foreign online store. So, if a faulty product causes fire damage, for example, you can claim compensation under home insurance,” says Kujala.
OP Pohjola’s online survey in November 2025 was answered by a total of 1,120 people in Finland over the age of 18. The results are weighted to be representative of the population in general. The number of respondents varies by question. The survey was conducted for OP Pohjola by Taloustutkimus. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points for the entire respondent group.
Media enquiries:
OP Pohjola Communications, tel. +358 10 252 8719, viestinta@op.fi
OP Pohjola is Finland’s largest financial services group, with more than two million owner-customers and over 14,000 employees. We provide a comprehensive range of banking and insurance services for personal and corporate customers. OP Pohjola consists of OP cooperative banks, its central cooperative OP Cooperative, and the latter's subsidiaries and affiliates. Our mission is to promote the sustainable prosperity, security and wellbeing of our owner-customers and operating region. Together with our owner-customers, we have been building Finnish society and a sustainable future for 120 years now. www.op.fi