Selling online in Spain. The most popular marketplaces and 4 useful tips

The past few years have made the Spanish market particularly attractive for many brands, given that the number of users buying online has reached 31.93 million (up 7.7 percent from the previous year) and the internet penetration rate is 94,9%.

What are the future prospects? According to Statista, revenue in the Spanish e-commerce market will reach $4 billion in 2024.

According to Statista, during 2023, about 30 percent of online consumers in Spain engaged in this activity monthly. Although e-commerce has been gaining increasing popularity in recent years, the percentage of Spanish shoppers who use these purchasing channels several times a day or week remains small.

According to the “Digital 2023” report, published by We are Social, the most commonly purchased products belong to the category ofapparel (estimated annual spending $8.72 billion, down 5.9 percent from last year), electronics (estimated annual spending $7.75 billion, down 19.8 percent from last year), personal care and household products (estimated annual spending $4.12 billion, down 7.7 percent from last year).

To sell online in a foreign country, and therefore also in Spain, you have 2 options available to you:

1. Develop and promote proprietary e-commerce. This requires a substantial investment in brand awareness activities, SEO.
2. Selling through marketplace platforms, such as Amazon and eBay. This is a strategy that makes it possible to reach millions of potential customers, usually in a shorter time frame and with smaller investments. In fact, marketplaces represent the easiest route for many companies.

Marketplaces are profitable sales channels for brands that want to expand their business in Spain, because they allow them to reach a large pool of users in a relatively short time (and with investment).

Let’s see which are the most popular in Spain:

If we look at traffic data, the most popular platform overall is Amazon with over 113 million visits, despite a 12.68 percent decrease from last year;

In second place we find the platform AliExpress, with 30.68 million visits. The Chinese marketplace, owned by Alibaba, hosts small independent retailers. Created to offer small Chinese companies global visibility, it is now also open to retailers of other nationalities (including Italy, Spain, Turkey, Russia).

In third place is the famous Spanish retail chain El Corte Inglés, which garners about 29 million web visits each month. El Corte Inglés is the largest department store chain in Spain and Portugal, as well as the largest in Europe. In addition to excelling in traditional retail, the Spanish giant is also investing in digital, with its own online marketplace. The group’s goal is to effectively connect online sales with traditional sales. In the immediate future, in fact, the physical store will also serve online orders.

This year, French chain Carrefour and eBay drop out of the ranking to give way to Leroy Merlin (launched in Spain in 2022) and Decathlon (launched in Spain in 2021), which record 20 and 13 million monthly visits in the country, respectively.

Before opening up to the Spanish market, it is critical:

1. Delve into users’ online purchasing preferences and behaviors; An example? It might be useful to know that credit/debit cards are the preferred payment method for Spaniards. And what methods do they use to buy online? Most Spaniards prefer the mobile platform to make online purchases.
2. Adapt content to the local language; texts should not only be translated, but localized, that is, adapted in a natural way to the lexicon of Spanish buyers.
3. Structure an appropriate logistics organization that respects the rules of each platform and the expectations of consumers, who are increasingly accustomed to fast and efficient deliveries.
4. Have a Spanish-speaking customer service team in place; local language customer service is critical to support customers in any inquiries or return procedures and thus improve the customer experience.