Press release dated 29/07/2010
E-business continued to grow in 2009, mainly thanks to purchases
However, the number of Basque companies using e-commerce remained stable and stood at 14.9% in 2009
The e-commerce of the Basque Country continued to grow in terms of turnover, despite the fact that the number of companies operating online remained stable (-0.1 points), according to Eustat data. The turnover generated in 2009 online or by means of other electronic systems, such as email, electronic data exchange (EDE), etc, came to 7 401,8 million euros in terms of e-sales and to 4 626,4 million with regard to purchases made.
With respect to the previous year, these figures were up by 3.4% in the case of e-commerce sales by Basque companies and 34.0% in terms of the purchases made using this same system.
In absolute terms, Bizkaia was the province with the highest purchases, while Álava, along with Bizkaia, continue to stand out in terms of sales volume, despite the drop registered by some of its main companies. If the size of the establishments is taken into account, the highest e-commerce figures were obtained by those with 10 or more employees.
As far as the percentage of companies of the Basque Country involved in e-commerce is concerned, the number fell very slightly in 2009, by 0.1 percentage points, and currently stands at 14.9%. This percentage is mainly down to companies that purchase on line (13.8%) and to a lesser extent, to companies that sell using e-commerce (3.4%).
Therefore, even though online sales were much higher than purchases in economic terms, the number of companies that buy online was much higher than those that sell using that channel.
The number of establishments involved in e-commerce in the Basque Country came to 29,000. It is also estimated that the e-commerce purchases made by these establishments accounted for 24.9% of their total purchases and the sales for 32.5% of their total sales.
These figures vary if the size of the company is taken into account. Thus, among companies with 10 or more employees, 28.7% used e-commerce, which was up 1.5 percentage points on the previous year. The number of companies in this segment that purchased on line is much higher, as they accounted for 20.2%, and the ones selling using these same channels were far less important (8.0%).
With respect to the channel used for e-purchases, 38.3% used websites, 40.3% email and the remaining 21.4% EDE and other networks. With respect to electronic sales, 43.6% was by EDE and other networks, 26.0% by email and 30.4% through the website.
With regard to the type of customer buying online in 2009, the great majority of transactions, 88.8% of the total e-sales, were to other companies (known as B2B), 17.0% to private consumers (B2C) and the remaining 0.7% to other end users, such as public administrations (B2G).
Methodological note: To publish the data for the 2009 E-commerce data (Information Society Survey - ESI - Companies 2010), the Basque Statistics Office (EUSTAT) has used the new National Classification of Economic Activities 2009 (CNAE-2009). The e-commerce data published until the 2008 (ESI-Companies surveys 2001-2009) used the National Classification of Economic Activities1993 (CNAE-93). This change has meant nine divisions being created in the classification of economic activities that appear in the published tables and these breakdowns are therefore no longer comparable with previous years
CNAE-93 & CNAE-2009 classification of activities
For further information:
Basque Statistics Office
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Tlf:+34-945-01 75 00 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 E-mail: eustat@eustat.es
Contact: José Miguel Escalada
Tlf:+34-945-01 75 96 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01
Further press releases on Information Society Survey of the Basque Country -ESI Companies
Information Society Survey of the Basque Country -ESI Companies databank