The volume of business generated in 2003 via the Internet or other electronic systems (EDI, Electronic Data Interchange, etc.) came to 3,702.5 million euros as regards electronic sales and 1,794.7 million as regards purchases, according to Eustat data.

In relation to the previous year, these figures mean that there was an increase of 30.7% in the case of sales via e-commerce – rising from the figure for 2002 of 2,833.7 million - and 18.9% as regards purchases made by the same system – 1,509.5 million in 2002.

Going into greater detail, it can be seen that, by Province, the outstanding turnovers were in Alava, in terms of sales, and Bizkaia for purchases. By branch of activity, industry outshone the other sectors as regards sales, while in purchases, industry and services obtained similar figures, with irrelevant figures for the construction sector. Lastly, and bearing in mind the size of the establishment, we can see that the highest figures as regards the use of e-commerce were in those with 10 or more employees.

Electronic commerce, although on the increase, continued to carry little weight in Basque companies in 2003

As for the number of establishments that carried out e-commerce, the percentage increase, going from 4.4% in 2002 to 5.1% in 2003, was confirmed. The reason for this rise was the increase in companies who made purchases electronically, accounting for 4.3% of them and, to a lesser extent, companies who made sales in the same way, which came to 1.4%.

There were 8,700 establishments carrying out e-commerce in the A.C. of the Basque Country, while the purchases and sales made in this way accounted for 17.4% of total purchases and 20.6% of total sales.

Bearing in mind the size of the company, among those with 10 or more employees, 10.9% used e-commerce, with 8.7% making electronic purchases and 3.7% electronic sales.

As regards the type of customer to which e-commerce sales were made in 2003, 44% of the total number of electronic sales were to other companies (commerce known as B2B), 54% were made to individual consumers (B2C) and the remaining 2% was shared among other customers such as to Public Administration (B2G).

The distribution of sales made through the Internet according to customer location shows that over half, 56% of the total turnover, was destined for the A.C. of the Basque Country, 36% went to other parts of the State, another 5% was sent to the EU and the remaining 3% to the Rest of the World.

As for purchases, the principal origin stated by companies was the rest of the State, with 51% of the total number of electronic purchases. Next came the Community itself, with 32% with the remainder coming from the EU with 10% and the Rest of the World with 7%.