Why you should consider Spain for your ecommerce business

When you think about countries in Europe that can serve as a good market for your ecommerce business, the first that pop up in your mind are probably the United Kingdom, France and Germany. But hey, do not forget about Spain, a country that has made major inroads in terms of ecommerce. Here’s why you should consider Spain for your ecommerce business.

As a recent study by Ecommerce Europe has shown, Spain is one of the top emerging ecommerce countries in Europe. And research company Forrester expects Spain to be Europe’s fastest growing ecommerce country for the next three years, with a predicted growth rate of 18% year-on-year. And all this while Spain is the biggest ecommerce industry in Southern Europe and the third-biggest ecommerce economy in Europe.

Less competitive than Germany or France
According to Ecommerce Managers, a company that helps other companies with expanding their business to Spain, the Southern European country is a very interesting one for companies who wants to expand internationally. “Especially since thus far Spain has a less competitive market than Germany or France.”

While Spain is moving forward in terms of ecommerce, in the field of m-commerce it’s already a leading country in Europe. The penetration of mobile devices like tablets is very high, just like the purchase intention on smartphones. “And on a logistic level, Spanish companies like iBird and Emakers offer innovative services to make the delivery in urban areas as easy as possible.”

Your online business in Google
In Spain, Google is the leading search engine with a 99% market share. That’s why a good position in Google’s search results is crucial for online success. “Luckily the local competition isn’t very active in every online niche, as it is the case in countries like The Netherlands. Also, the Adwords cost-per-click rates are relatively low for such a big country.”

In the affiliate market, Spain is a little lagging behind, as the smaller companies in particular still barely use this channel. But Spaniards are, however, very active on social media. Research has shown that when it comes to purchasing something, Spanish consumers are strongly influenced by promotional campaigns, posts by friends and advertisements they see on social network sites.

Ecommerce Managers also has another reason why it’s a good choice to do business in Spain: its inhabitants aren’t that demanding in terms of service, compared to, for example, German consumers. Also they are accustomed to longer delivery times than what’s usual in Northern Europe. “This makes it easier to do business, compared to the more mature ecommerce industries in Europe”, the company states.

Trustmarks and customer review systems in Spain
When you want to start an online store in Spain, you should know that Confianza Online is currently the most important ecommerce trustmark, but there also several cheaper trustmarks like eValor or Ekomi. These last two are also, together with Trusted Shops, Icert and Trustivity, the most popular customer review systems in Spain.

Online payment methods in Spain
According to Ecommerce Managers, the most used payment methods for online purchases are credit card (53%), PayPal (26%) and bank transfer (22%). Furthermore, cash on delivery (21%) is also a much preferred payment method for Spanish consumers. “This has to do with the fact that many Spaniards aren’t used to paying online and thus don’t have that much confidence in it. They prefer to pay when their parcel has arrived.”

If you want to have more information about the Spanish ecommerce industry, you should request the free whitepaper from Ecommerce Managers using this link.