Spanish E-commerce is Skyrocketing at a Faster Pace

The Spanish market is increasingly e-commerce-ready. According to CNMC, Spain reached during 2018 its highest quarterly growth rate since 2015: 32.8%. As a result, big retail brands are rapidly decreasing and rationalizing their chains of physical stores.

As shown in the graphs below, Spanish e-commerce revenues will end up during 2018 close to € 17 billion. This data shows the sector’s expansion from around € 15 billion in 2017 to an expected €23 billion in 2022.  Also the number of online shoppers is growing rapidly.

Source: CNMC

Source: Statista, e-Commerce Spain, User in millions + Free Vector Maps

Regarding categories, CNMC’s statistics indicate that travel agencies and touristic operators generate most income (11.3%), followed by air transport (7.5%) and fashion (7.1%). Probably, the category stats are based on a too limited poll, as typically consumer electronics and toys also major e-commerce categories.

Source: CNMC

The main factor that explains this ecommerce trend is the change in the Spanish population’s life style. Nowadays, 47% of consumers are assumed to buy online at least once per month, and 8 out of 10 users prefer to buy directly from their mobile phones.

Taking the forecasts into account, Moody’s predicts that for the next decade ecommerce will continue to expand rapidly in the Spanish market, even more than in other European countries such as France, Germany or UK, where ecommerce already grabbed a major market share. Activities that will grow the most are cosmetics and personal care, exposing big retailers even more.

Nevertheless, despite all those favourable results, there is still a huge gap of 3,037 million between what Spanish bought from foreign websites and what foreigners bought from Spanish websites. In addition, ecommerce in Spain only takes a 4% of the total national commerce, compared to much more significant shares in the USA and UK. Thus, Spanish companies still have a long way to improve and to explore in the ecommerce world to develop new business opportunities if they aim at competing with global marketplaces.

SOURCES

“El ecommerce se dispara en España”, ABC Redes, January 9, 2018.

https://www.abc.es/tecnologia/redes/abci-ecommerce-dispara-espana-201801081037_noticia.html

“El eCommerce español alcanza su mayor tasa de crecimiento interanual desde 2015, un 26,2%”, Marketing4ecommerce, April 8, 2018.

https://marketing4ecommerce.net/ecommerce-espanol-cncm-2018/

“El ecommerce en España: alza de hasta el 15% anual y 15.000 millones en 2022, según Moody’s”, Modaes, June 27, 2018

https://www.modaes.es/entorno/el-ecommerce-en-espana-alza-de-hasta-el-15-anual-y-15000-millones-en-2022-segun-moodys.html

“España 2018: Informe sobre ecommerce”, Osudio, June 8, 2018

https://www.osudio.com/es/blog/postings/ecommerce-report-espana-2018

Alba Sanchez