E-commerce sales and number of online buyers growing rapidly in Spain

Electronic commerce is an increasingly widespread form of consumption among the Spanish population.

According to the latest data on the use of ICT in Spain released by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), almost 19.5 million people or 55.2% of the population aged 16 to 74 years of age have made purchases online in the last three months of this year 2021.

These figures confirm that the upward trend in electronic commerce is thus continuing. The 2020 survey showed that the percentage of people who bought online was 53.8%, and in 2019 it was 46.9%.

The Spanish statistical office says that each buyer spent, on average, 272.9 euros and that the average cost of each purchase was 55.9 euros. The average number of purchases made per person was 4.9. In all three cases, those values are similar to those of 2020.

The INE estimates that 95.1 million online purchases were made in Spain in the last three months, a figure higher than the 93.6 million in 2020. This increase is mainly due to the increase in the number of buyers.

The only product group that reduced its purchases was food or beverages from stores or supermarkets. These products were bought by 11.2% of the population, 2.5 points less than in 2020, when the country was immersed in the restrictions caused by the pandemic.

Services contracted online

The services contracted online in the last three months also experienced greater demand than in 2020. 19.2% contracted some accommodation service (compared to 8.4% the previous year) and 9.3% transport services (compared to 5.2%) and 2.8% requested home services (2.3% in 2020).

Finally, 38.2% of people aged 16 to 74 downloaded a product or subscription through the Internet in the last three months (compared to 35.7% in 2020): 19.3% bought software (downloads and updates), 16.5% movies or series in streaming and 14.2% tickets to cultural events such as movies or concerts.