E-commerce did not grow during lockdown

The turnover of electronic commerce in Spain reached 12,020 million euros in the period between April and June 2020, which is only 0.2% more than in the same period of the previous year, despite coinciding with the months of tougher confinement, when the vast majority of non-essential goods stores were closed, and the consumer had to resort to shopping on-line.

The explanation for this apparent contradiction is that the covid-19 pandemic had a very unequal impact on the different sectors, since the branches associated with tourism suffered a collapse of 84% of sales, while supermarkets or the purchase of Household appliances doubled their turnover compared to the same period of the previous year, according to the latest data provided by the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC).

The confinement was noted in the type of purchases. By sectors, the industries with the highest income were clothing, with 9.4% of the total, up from 5.6% a year ago; followed by subscription to pay television channels, which went from representing 1.9% a year ago to 4.5% in the second quarter of 2020; and hypermarkets, supermarkets and food stores, which are among the ten sectors with the highest income from electronic commerce with 4.1%.

On the contrary, the travel agencies and tour operators, air transport and hotels and similar accommodation sectors, which a year ago occupied the first three positions with 16%, 8.8% and 5.8% of the total, respectively.

Transactions

The number of e-commerce transactions registered in the second quarter of 2020 reached a record figure of 244.4 million operations, representing a 15.6% increase compared to 211.3 million in the same period of the previous year.

In this context, clothing led the ranking by sales, with 7.4% of the total registered in the second quarter of 2020, followed by department stores, with 6.2%; subscription to television channels, with 5.5%; gambling and betting, with 5%; and the sale of records, books, newspapers and stationery with 4.7%.

A year ago, the first positions were occupied by land transport of passengers and gambling and betting, with 7.5% and 5.9% of the total, respectively. This was followed by the sale of records, books, newspapers and stationery with 5.8% and activities related to transport with 5.1%.