Ecommerce in Spain was worth 23.91 billion euros in 2016

The ecommerce turnover in Spain was worth 23.91 billion euros in 2016, an increase of over 15 percent compared to the year before. This year, it’s expected ecommerce in Spain will grow 17 percent to reach almost 28 billion euros at the end of 2017.

This is shown by the Spain Ecommerce Country Report from Ecommerce Foundation. It also reveals that 11 percent of enterprises in Spain made business-to-consumer sales via their websites. For comparison: in both 2014 and 2015, this share was 9 percent.

Spaniards like to research online

Spanish consumers are consistently researching online before they decide to purchase something via the internet. Last year, 83 percent of Spanish internet users researched goods or services online, with 71 percent using price or product comparison websites before purchasing. About two in three internet users consulted customer reviews on websites before purchasing.

54% of Spaniards shopped online

Last year, 54 percent of Spaniards purchased online. Clothing and footwear are the most purchased online, followed by home electronics, books and sport and leisure articles. But sometimes consumers don’t go back to an online shop where they’ve shopped before. This is mostly because of hidden costs or the fact the consumer needed to think more about it. Other reasons are “Payments options are not adequate”, “Prices are confusing or unclear” and “A lack of product information”.

Cross-border ecommerce in Spain

Based in information from Statista, Ecommerce Foundation writes that 41 percent of Spanish consumers shop both domestically and cross-border, 52 percent shop domestically only and 7 percent only order products from foreign online stores.

Popular payment methods in Spain

When respondents got the question which payment method they prefer when paying for something they bought online, 42 percent said they prefer PayPal or something similar, while 37 percent would like to pay with a debit or credit card. And 13 percent prefer paying with cash on delivery, a decrease from 2015, when 15 percent of respondents gave this answer.