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Press release 02/08/2016

INFORMATION SOCIETY SURVEY. COMPANIES 2016

E-commerce in the Basque Country continued to grow in 2015, both in terms of economic figures and as a percentage of companies engaging in e-commerce

26.4% of Basque companies engaged in e-commerce, which is 1.6 percentage points more than in the previous year, and sales increased by 13.3%

E-commerce in the Basque Country is continuing to grow, both in terms of sales figures in euros and in terms of the percentage of companies engaging in it, according to data provided by Eustat. Thus, 26.4% of companies engaged in e-commerce in 2015, 1.6 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 and other networks) rose to 13,732.6 million euros in terms of electronic sales and 10,518.0 million euros in terms of purchases.

Compared to the year before, these figures show increases of 13.3% in e-commerce sales by companies in the Basque Country and 12.8% in those relating to purchases made using the same system.

Although the percentages by province were similar, Bizkaia stood out for being the province where electronic purchases grew the most in 2015, by 13.7%, whereas in sales in increased by 12.7%. Álava, for its part, is the one that saw the largest growth in sales, 14.9%, and a growth in purchases, with 11.9%. As for Gipuzkoa, in terms of purchases it grew 11.7% and electronic sales were up 12.3%.

With regards to its weight in each of the provinces, there was an even distribution over all three in terms of electronic sales, though Bizkaia had the highest, with 36.2% of the Autonomous Community, whereas Gipuzkoa and Álava had an equal share this year, 31.9%. In purchases, however, Bizkaia accounted for 51.6% of the total in 2015, whereas Gipuzkoa represented 31.6%, and Álava kept 16.8% of the electronic purchases in the Basque Country overall.

Taking into account the size of the establishments, it is the establishments with 10 or more employees in which larger sums of money are traded in e-commerce, with 81.6% of sales and 68.2% of total purchases.

Regarding the percentage of companies in the Basque Country that deal in e-commerce, these increased by 1.6 percentage points in 2015 and currently represent 26.4%. It is also apparent that, even though the electronic sales figures greatly exceed those for purchases, the number of companies purchasing electronically, 23.9%, greatly exceeds those that sell using the same method, at 6.5%.

The number of companies carrying out e-commerce in the Basque Country is calculated to be around 43,700. In these, it is estimated that purchases made via this method are 31.3% of their total purchases and sales are 36.8% of their total sales.

These figures vary if company size is taken into account. Thus, amongst those with 10 or more employees, 30.0% engaged in e-commerce, 1.2 percentage points more with respect to the previous year. Also in this segment, the number of companies making electronic purchases was much higher, standing at 25.3%, whereas those making sales through the same channels were lower in number, 11.4%, following increases of 0.3 and 0.6 percentage points this year, respectively.

With regards to the means by which electronic purchases were made, 45.4% were made by email, 30,4% by EDI and other networks and the remaining 24.2% using websites. On the other hand, 47.6% of e-sales were made by EDI and other networks, 28.0% by email and 24.4% using websites.

With regards to the type of client to which e-commerce sales were destined in 2015, a large majority, 78.5% of the total e-sales, were destined for other companies (so-called B2B trade), 20.8% were for private consumers (B2C) and the remaining 0.7% was spread over other destinations, such as Public Administrations (B2G).