The volume of commerce generated through the web or via other electronic systems (EDI, Electronic Data Interchange, etc.) in 2004 came to 4,311.8 million euros as regards electronic sales and 2,012.5 million in the case of purchases, according to Eustat data.

These figures represent, in relation to the previous year, increases of 16.5% in the case of sales via e-commerce -from 3,702.5 million- and of 12.1% as regards purchases made by the same system –from the figure of 1,794.7 million registered in 2003.

As had been the case in the previous year, we see that Alava was once again notable for sales as was Bizkaia for purchases. By branch of activity, Industry outsold the other sectors, and in purchases, Industry and Services achieved similar figures, while Construction was insignificant in this area. Finally, if we take into account the size of the establishment, those with 10 or more employees obtained the most important figures in the use of electronic commerce.

The number of Basque companies that carried out e-commerce, despite an increase of almost 50% during the year, still represented only 7.6%

If we consider the percentage of establishments carrying out e-commerce, we can see that the figure of 5.1% registered in 2003 rose to 7.6% in 2004. The reason behind this increase was the rise in the number of companies purchasing by electronic means, which came to 6.8% and, to a lesser extent, companies carrying out sales by the same methods, accounting for 1.7%.

It was estimated that there were 13,000 establishments involved in e-commerce in the A.C. of the Basque Country. Purchases and sales made by these establishments in this way accounted for 15.0% of their total purchases and 22.0% of total sales.

In addition, if we take into account the size of the company, 13.4% of those with 10 or more employees carried out e-commerce, with 10.9% making purchases electronically and 4.1% making electronic sales.

As regards the type of customer to whom the e-commerce sales were destined in 2004, 86.9% of total electronic sales were destined to other companies (commerce known as B2B), 12.5% was made to private consumers (B2C) and the remaining 0.6% was shared between other destinations, such as Public Administration (B2G).

If we turn to the means by which these electronic sales were made, over half, or 57.8% to be precise, were made by EDI and other networks, 27.5% were via the website itself and the remaining 14.7% were via e-mail.

As regards the location of customers, the distribution of sales made via the ‘net shows that 45.2% of the total was destined for the European Union, 31.6% went to the rest of the State, 21.1% remained within the internal market of the A.C. of the Basque Country and the remaining 2.1% was sent to the rest of the world.

On the side of purchases, companies declared that the most important origin, with 47.0% of total electronic purchases, was the rest of the State. Next, with 27.1%, came the Community itself and the remainder came from the EU (19.5%) and the rest of the world (6.4%).