Ecommerce reaches 7.4% of sales in Spain

The ecommerce continues its unstoppable progress within fashion business. Last year, more than seven of each hundred euros spent in the sector in Spain were consumed through the Web, according to what shows the Informe de la moda online en España, made by Modaes.es with the collaboration of Kantar and the sponsorship of Prodware.

In detail, the ecommerce already reached the 7.4% of Spain’s sector sales in 2018, 1.5 percentage points more than previous year, the maximum historical rate. In 2012, sector’s online sales weight barely reached the 1.5%.

The fact is even more relevant taking into account that, globally, fashion’s sales are not facing their best moment. According to data published by the Asociación del Comercio Textil, Complementos y Piel (Acotex), the sector closed 2018 with a sales’ drop of 2.27%, until 17,686 million euros.

Instead, online sales soared between January and September a 29.9%, until 2,047 million euros, according to the last available statistics. Ecommerce role in fashion business in also relevant in terms of volume: last year, more than five of each hundred commercialized clothing items in Spain were sold through the Web. In detail, the sector reached the 5.2%, against the 1% of the previous five years.

However, ecommerce normalization, the entrance of new sectors within the channel and its growth year by year has also caused that fashion’s weight above the total of online sales have dropped in the last few years, until positioning in the 7.2% in the first nine months of 2018.

Globally, Spanish consumers’ annual average expenditure positioned last year in 135.8 euros, against the 127.8 euros of previous year and the 107.4 euros of 2016. Each one bought an average 6.5 items per year, and for each products acquired through Internet spent 20.9 euros, against the 21.1 euros of previous year.

In this sense, the price is kept as a key factor in fashion purchase through the Web, and more than a 60% of the registered sales the previous year were done with a discount.  

Urban woman and with studies is continuing to be the most usual profile in Spain between all kinds of fashion consumers through Internet. In detail, the reports points again that the usual profile corresponds to a woman aged between 35 and 54 years old, who love in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants and has a higher education. However, the fashion is becoming more plural and integrates more wide population segments each time more.

The report also reflects the bet of the traditional operators for the online channel and how, consequently, offline natives have continued to win weight in the purchases through Internet. In this sense, the retailers reached more online fashion sales than the pure players the previous year, with a quote of 51.3%.

For its part, digital natives have gone through having a hegemonic position in the Web, with almost the 80% of fashion online sales in 2012, to hold a quote of a 48.7% last year.