Spanish companies are not getting a slice of the e-commerce boom due to the pandemic | Economie

Spanish companies do not benefit The bubble That remote work has occurred due to the coronavirus pandemic due to measures such as confinement or restrictions on movement. National companies sold 275,398 million euros through e-commerce in 2020, 10.4% less than in 2019, and most worryingly, this is the first drop in online sales since 2014, according to an e-commerce survey published by the National Institute. Statistics (INE).

This setback responds to several reasons. The main reason is the collapse of tourism-related companies (airlines, hotels, travel agencies and others) – the first national industry – which was not able to compensate for it by increasing corporate sales of goods Consumption such as commercial chains, home appliances and supermarkets.

Second, a large part of the increase in online sales was financed by foreign companies such as Amazon. The best reflection of the dominance of foreign companies over national companies is E-commerce data provided by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), and this only counts those that are paid by card, that is, those of private consumers.

Thus, online purchases by Spanish companies also suffered a decrease of 14% to 222,101 million euros, which is 19.1% of the total in 2020, practically at the same level as in 2019 (0.2 percentage point lower). ), according to data from the National Institute of Statistics. On the contrary, consumer purchases from the private sector set a new record in 2020 and reached €51.6 billion, up 5.8% from the previous year.

Tourism-related branches saw a decline of more than 57% in their sales compared to 2019. In contrast, sales of sectors such as supermarkets or home appliance purchases doubled compared to 2019, according to CNMC.

This body also stresses the importance of foreign companies compared to national companies. E-commerce sites in Spain accounted for 39% of revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020. The remaining 61% correspond to purchases originating in Spain that are made from online commerce sites abroad.

Remote work depending on the size of the company

With regard to teleworking, the National Institute of Statistics survey showed a positive relationship between the number of workers and the use of telework, but depending on the size of the company. Thus, half of companies with 10 or more employees allow remote work in the first quarter of 2021.

Along these lines, while remote work continued in 46% of companies with between 10 and 49 workers, in those with more than 250 employees, their adoption exceeded 85%. The gap is even larger when it comes to small businesses, with only one in five allowing remote work during the first quarter.