Press Release 12/07/2013
E-commerce in Basque companies continued to grow in 2012, above all on the purchasing side
19.7% of Basque companies carried out e-commerce, 2.4% more than in 2011
e-Commerce in the Basque Country continued to grow in the percentage of participating companies, as well as in revenues, according to data prepared by Eustat. Specifically, 19.7% of companies carried out e-commerce in 2012, 2.4 percentage points more than in the previous year. The volume of business generated over the Internet or via other electronic systems such as email and electronic data interchange (EDI), etc. stood at 10,699.2 million euros in terms of electronic sales and 7,207.6 million in terms of purchases.
Compared to the year before, these figures show increases of 1.6% in e-commerce sales by companies in the Basque Country and 8.4% in those relating to purchases made using the same system.
In absolute values, by province, Bizkaia stood out in both e-commerce purchases and sales. Gipuzkoa comes next in purchases and Álava in sales. This latter province stood out as it is where e-purchases were up the most and also being the only one where e-sales dropped. If establishment size is taken into account, those with 10 or more employees obtained the highest figures in terms of the use of e-commerce.
Regarding the percentage of companies in the Basque Country that deal in e-commerce, these increased by 2.4 percentage points in 2012 and currently represent 19.7%. This proportion is mainly due to the companies that made purchases, 18.0% and to a lesser degree those that made sales, 4.6%.
As is apparent, even though the electronic sales figures greatly exceed those for purchases, the number of companies purchasing electronically greatly exceeds those that sell using the same method.
The number of companies carrying out e-commerce in the Basque Country is calculated to be around 33,800. In these, it is estimated that purchases made via this method are 33.7% of their total purchases and sales are 36.6% of their total sales.
These figures vary if company size is taken into account. Thus, amongst those with 10 or more employees, 27.7% carried out e-commerce, after having increased 2.8 percentage points on the previous year. Also in this segment, the number of companies making electronic purchases was much higher, standing at 23.6%, whereas those making sales through the same channels were lower in number, 10.4%, following rises of 2.2 and 0.6 percentage points, respectively.
With regards to the means by which electronic purchases were made, 43.6% were done by email, 30.5% using websites and the remaining 25.9% by EDI and other networks. On the other hand, 44.9% of e-sales were done by EDI and other networks, 31.7% by email and 23.4% using websites.
With regards to the type of client to which e-commerce sales were destined in 2012, a large majority, 83.6% of the total e-sales, were destined for other companies (so-called B2B trade), 15.3% were for private consumers (B2C) and the remaining 1.1% was spread over other destinations, such as Public Administrations (B2G).
70% of Basque companies consider that they are encountering difficulties in taking part in e-commerce
Finally, 70.4% of the companies of the Autonomous Region consider that there are difficulties in carrying out e-commerce. Thus, 53.9% deem that their products and services are not suited to being sold through the Internet or other telematic networks and 28.4% observe a high cost for its development and maintenance. Moreover, 20.0% believe that their clients are insufficiently prepared for using these electronic channels, 19.3% believe that there are still security problems with online collections and payments and 18.9% are of the opinion that they have inadequate staff or that their staff have had insufficient training. 18.1% also see logistical problems and 17,7% understand that there is a great degree of uncertainty with regards to the laws that govern this market, the delivery periods and the guarantees offered in the event of any problem that may arise.
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel: 945 01 75 62
Further press releases on Information Society Survey of the Basque Country (ESI) Companies
Information Society Survey of the Basque Country (ESI) Companies databank