Before Covid-19 acceleration: Portrait of the online consumer in Spain

Less than Denmark, Germany or the Netherlands, but more than Portugal, Greece or Italy. Spain is halfway in the European Union in penetration of electronic commerce among the population, with 58% of individuals using the Internet to order goods or services, compared to 63% on average in the 28 (the European Union before departure from the UK).

This is the reality that Eurostat data describe and that includes a report from the National Observatory of Telecommunications and the Information Society (Ontsi), which allows knowing dozens of details about online consumer behavior in Spain in 2019.

Specifically, Spaniards purchased sports products through the Internet worth 2,035 million euros in 2019, 9.3% more than the previous year, according to the latest data published by the National Market and Competition Commission (CNMC).

The highest average ticket, of 68.86 euros, corresponds to the online sale of toys and sporting goods, although the activity that generated the highest turnover was the sale of tickets for artistic, sports and recreational shows, which increased by 5, 2%, up to 1,340 million.

Sports ecommerce moved more than 2,000 million euros in Spain in 2019

The confinement by Covid-19 and the restrictions on traditional commerce have triggered e-commerce in Spain in almost all sectors, incorporating thousands of consumers into e-commerce and generating a habit that will probably make all these ratios rise in the medium term. For now, however, Spain is one step behind the whole of the European Union.

For example, while 58% of the Spanish population uses the Internet to make purchases, 14% also use the Internet to sell (compared to the average of 20% in the whole of the European Union).

The less frequent users in online purchases are the majority in Spain. In particular, 45% of Spanish online shoppers make between one and two purchases per year, compared to 32% in the EU as a whole. The opposite occurs with heavy users: while in Spain only 23% of online shoppers make six purchases or more per year, in the 28 this proportion reaches 33%.

In terms of spending, Spain also lags behind its community partners: only 2% of the population spends more than a thousand euros per year on their purchases online, while in the EU as a whole this rate reaches 4% . Likewise, those who spend less than 50 euros a year in Spain are 11%, compared to 8% in the EU.

More than the 50% of the population in Spain uses Internet to make purchases.