Only two out of ten Spanish SMEs sell online

The rapid growth of ecommerce in Spain (and pretty much everywhere) has been a great incentive for small and medium businesses to step into the online world. But although a large percentage of companies already have an online presence, yet few have an ecommerce website.

Nine in ten SMEs in Spain are present online through corporate websites and most of these companies (95%) recognize the importance of being found on search engines and having a presence on social networks (80%). But at the same time 86 percent of business owners don’t have enough knowledge on digital marketing. And to make things even worse, only two out of ten sell their products or services online. So says a study by PortobelloInnova, a Spanish consultancy company. It also shows that one in three business owners don’t have a strategy or any knowledge about how to get a good position in search engines.

Physical retail and ecommerce combined

According to CEO David Gonzalez, falling sales in the traditional trade sector has caused many companies to rethink their strategy and start thinking about online selling as an added value to their physical store. “It’s what we like to call the ‘no-line’ world. Where there’s no clear boundary between the traditional physical world (offline) and online, and where companies take the best of each world to increase sales.”

Porotobellostreet.com is a huge online store for furniture and decoration. It has quadrupled its sales between 2008 and 2013, and a few years ago its founders started PortobelloInnova, a consultancy company that helps other businesses that want to jump into the online world.

Free eBay Store subscription
In other Spanish SME news, eBay has launched an initiative in the Southern-European country to boost sales of local SMEs. Business owners who have never had an eBay store can get a free subscription for a Basic eBay Store for ninety days.