Adigital, the Spanish Association of the Digital Economy, together with ICEX and Amazon, held ‘OutThink For Ecommerce’, a space for reflection and dialogue on the challenge of making digitalisation account for 40% of GDP by 2030.. With this objective in mind, each edition of OutThink focuses on a specific lever to achieve it. The conference held on 22 November focused on analysing the role of e-commerce in the scalability, internationalisation and competitiveness of companies and, above all, of SMEs, which make up 98% of the productive fabric in Spain.
All this in the framework of such an important week for e-commerce as Black Friday, which, according to the ‘.Black Friday Forecast and Sales Report 2023‘developed by Adigital and Online TrustThis is the date when more than 50% of shops apply general discounts and where six out of ten expect to increase their turnover.
The promotion of e-commerce is one of Adigital’s hallmarks and, for this reason, the E-Commerce Observatory was officially presented at the meeting. A tool coordinated by the Association together with leading companies in the industry and created for the active monitoring and promotion of e-commerce and public-private collaboration. Its purpose will be to boost the growth of SMEs through the digitisation of their sales channel, in order to achieve the objectives of the European Digital Decade.
Spain, a new hub for ecommerce
Susana Voces, president of Adigital, was in charge of opening ‘OutThink for Ecommerce’, highlighting Spain’s capacity, which has grown in digitisation in recent years, to become a leading country in secure and responsible e-commerce. In 2022, Spain was the 5th country in the EU with the most companies selling online, and was in the Top 6 European countries for ecommerce growth. A context that opens the door to further progress and to take advantage of the opportunities offered by ecommerce for the scalability and growth of companies.
In the same vein, Ruth Díaz, Vice President of Amazon in Spain, highlighted the important impact that e-commerce has on the economy and society: in Spain it has contributed around 8,400 million euros to GDP and has created around 178,000 direct jobs since its arrival. It also provides a boost to the development of SMEs. Helping SMEs to gain the security to scale their businesses necessarily involves a process of digitalisation. In the case of Amazon, 60% of the products sold through the platform are from third parties, mostly SMEs.
E-commerce has experienced tremendous growth thanks to platform technology that has made it easier for companies of all sizes to access online sales in an agile way. Spain is one of the countries where marketplaces have the greatest weight. Similarly, during the pandemic, Spanish SMEs have also been receptive to opening their own online shops through platforms such as Shopify, and integrations to facilitate the checkout process such as Stripe, and the many product delivery solutions that are offered in the market today.
The first OutThink roundtable, moderated by César Tello, General Manager of Adigital, has brought together both companies, together with Mattia Gamberoni, General Manager of Stripe in Spain and Portugal, and Gonzalo TorresManaging Director of Shopify in Spain, who together with Tiziana Tallaro, Director General of Confianza Online, have analysed the importance of the digitalisation of sales for the scalability of SMEs. They have also shared how their respective organisations are helping to make this happen. In the case of Shopify, through its SaaS model that allows you to create and customise an online shop across multiple devices. Stripe, on the other hand, provides a solution for secure payments and transfers. And in the case of Online Trust, helping to increase confidence in the online environment and to promote good business practices on the Internet.
Then, in the firechat between Ali Rezvan, Fundador The Retail Podcast and Silvestre SegarraThe event, which was attended by the Co-Founder of Sprinter, highlighted the need to innovate in order to not only survive, but above all, to boost the competitiveness of the business in an ever-changing context, and addressed the challenges of technological adoption.
The last round table of the day focused on cross-border ecommerce for business internationalisation, an increasingly relevant issue, as only 8% of Spanish SMEs sell online beyond our borders. The round table was moderated by Elisa Carbonell, Director General of Business Internationalisation at ICEX, an organisation that plays a key role in the international promotion of our country. It counted with the participation of several successful business cases, such as José Luis Vázquez, Founder of Nortem BioGroup; Lluis Montull, Cofounder of Natulim; Gonzalo Úrculo, Founder of CrowdFarming and Pepita Marín, Cofounder of We Are Knitters.
Participants shared their international experience as digital entrepreneurs: Nortem BioGroup debuted on Euronext Acces Paris in September with a capitalisation of EUR 12.9 million, Natulim expects to have a turnover of almost 20 million euros in 2024 just three years after its launch, We Are Knitters sells its knitting kits in 20 countries and CrowdFarmingis present in 4 European countries and has just signed a financing line with the European Investment Bank for 15 million euros. Among the challenges of their crossborder journey, they highlighted the different administrative and regulatory procedures, logistics management and talent shortages. On the other hand, they highlighted the favourable perception of online sales of sustainable products, especially among Northern European consumers.
The closing of ‘OutThink for Ecommerce’ was led by David Francisco BlancoSecretary General of Red.esThe event, a public entity attached to the Ministry of Digital Transformation through the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, emphasised the importance of public-private collaboration and the importance of public administrations listening to the private sector and thus being able to collaborate in the development of ecommerce.
