E-commerce Grows to New Heights in Spain

Turnover generated by e-commerce, buying and selling online, in Spain reached a record figure of 4.95 billion euro during the second quarter of last year.

According to the CNMC (National Markets and Competition Commission), this is 27% more than the revenue registered 12 months before.

And although many sources have reported that consumers are beginning to turn away from electronic gadgets for entertainment, such as the tablet, to return to more traditional methods, i.e. the book, the same can’t be said for the popularity of making one’s purchases via the Internet.

E-commerce is booming and has continued to do so quarter after quarter, each time registering record after record in sales.

As well as bringing about a greater income, the number of online transactions also went up. Between the months of April and June, 69.5 million purchases were made online, which is 22.8% more than for the same quarter in 2014.

With regards to the various sectors, the situation is to be as expected. The industries that have generated the greatest amount of money are travel agencies and tourist operators, with 20% of the total. Airlines make up 13% of all purchases and clothing, 6%.

Also faring well is the buying and selling of books, music, newspapers and magazines and stationary equipment.

And geographically speaking, a total of 60% of all sales were made buying goods from websites based in Spain. The remaining 40% correspond to purchases made in Spain but from web pages outside of the borders, mainly from the EU but also from China and the US.

Nevertheless, the biggest online retailers in Spain, which has the largest e-commerce market in Southern Europe, continue to be international companies.

In first place, by a long mile, is Amazon, which attracted 6.9 million visitors in July 2015 alone. This was a massive 2 million more than eBay, in second place.

Both of these digital companies lie way ahead of all domestic online retailers, the largest being El Corte Inglés, Mediamarkt, Inditex Group, Carrefour and Apple sites.

The logistics sector in Spain is still very underdeveloped, so it is natural that this sector will continue to grow, as there is so still much room for improvement. And, with Spain’s economy growing at a faster rate than all other European countries, now would be the opportune moment for all those thinking about whether or not to expand digitally to do so.

Source: www.expansion.com, www.ecommerce-europe.eu, www.emarketer.com