Press release 29/07/2020

INFORMATION SOCIETY SURVEY. COMPANIES. 2020

27.1% of all establishments carried out e-commerce in 2019 in the Basque Country, eight tenths more than the previous year.

Increases above 12% were registered compared to the previous year, in terms of both electronic sales and purchases.

27.1% of establishments in the Basque Country, some forty-four thousand establishments, carried out e-commerce in 2019, and it is estimated that purchases and sales made via this method were 43.7%% of their total sales and 38.4% of their total purchases, according to EUSTAT data.

In this regard, e-commerce in the Basque Country continued to grow in respect of the previous year. E-commerce sales by companies in establishments of the Basque Country increased by 12.4% and purchases made using the same system were up by 12.7%.

The volume of business generated in 2019 over the Internet or via other electronic systems such as email and electronic data interchange (EDI and other networks) rose to 21,521.6 million euros in terms of electronic sales and 15,851.3 million euros in terms of purchases.

At provincial level, Gipuzkoa stood out in electronic sales, with growth of 14.4%, followed by Bizkaia, with 12.8%, and Álava, with 10.0%. In electronic purchases, however, it was Bizkaia that achieved the greatest increase, 13.1%, followed by Gipuzkoa, 12.5%, and Álava, with 11.9%.

With regards to the weight that each of the provinces has, there was an even distribution over all three in terms of electronic sales; Bizkaia had the highest percentage, with 37.0% of the Basque Country total, whereas Gipuzkoa had 32.7% this year and Álava 30.3%. In purchases, however, the participation is more disparate, Bizkaia accounted for 51.3% of the total in 2019, whereas Gipuzkoa represented 30.9%, and Álava kept the remaining 17.8% of the electronic purchases in the Basque Country overall.

Considering the size of the establishments, it is those with 10 or more employees in which larger sums of money are traded in e-commerce, with 83.3% of sales and 69.8% of total purchases.

For its part, the percentage of establishments participating in e-commerce stood at 27.1% in 2019, 0.8 percentage points more than the previous year. This upturn occurred primarily due to the increase in the percentage purchasing electronically, 0.6 of a percentage point up on the previous year, currently accounting for 24.7% of establishments, given that the percentage of companies making electronic sales stayed practically the same, up 0.1 of a percentage point, now accounting for 7.0% of the total.

Likewise, it can be observed that although the number of establishments purchasing electronically greatly exceeds those that sell using the same method, the figures for electronic sales (21.5 thousand million euros) are higher than those for electronic purchases (15.9 thousand million euros).

These figures vary if employment is taken into account. Thus, amongst those with 10 or more employees, 33.2% engaged in e-commerce, 1.6 percentage points up on the previous year. Also in this segment, there was a higher number of companies making electronic purchases, 28.3%; and a lower number of companies making sales through the same channels, 13.8%; following a 1.3 percentage point increase in those that purchase and, to a lesser degree, a 0.7 point increase in those that sell.

With regards to the means by which electronic purchases were made, 51.6% of total purchases were made by email, 23.9% by EDI and other networks and the remaining 24.5% using websites. In turn, 37.7% of total sales were carried out via EDI and other networks, 32.8% by email and 29.5% through websites, apps or internet sales portals.

With regards to the type of customer to which e-commerce sales were destined in 2019, a large majority, 78.5% of total e-sales, were destined for other companies (so-called B2B trade), 19.1% were for private consumers (B2C) and the remaining 2.4% was spread over other kinds of customers, such as Public Administrations (B2G).

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62