The e-commerce market in Spain has witnessed a significant boom, with cross-border online shopping driving growth.

“Another gold - mining treasure land.”

Produced by | Cross - border Frontier   Author | Hua Shao   Editor | Li Bufan

01 Sustained Growth in Scale

As one of the five key markets in Europe, the strength of the Spanish e - commerce industry cannot be underestimated.

Recently, the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) of Spain released a statistical report on the scale of the Spanish e - commerce market. The results show that the scale of the Spanish e - commerce market exceeded 95 billion euros in 2024, a year - on - year increase of 13.1%.

The continuous growth of the Spanish e - commerce scale. Source: CNMC

This remarkable growth is mainly due to two aspects. First, there is a continuous change in consumption habits. More and more Spaniards are starting to rely on online shopping, regarding online purchases as an important source to meet daily needs and even for entertainment. At the end of last year, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Public Services of Spain released data showing that the number of online shopping users in Spain exceeded 30 million for the first time, which means that the e - commerce model has been widely popularized in Spain.

Second, cross - border online shopping transactions continue to grow. In the fourth quarter of last year, only 38.5% of Spain's total revenue came from domestic online shopping expenditures, and the remaining 61.5% went to foreign retailers, among which EU retailers accounted for an important share. This imbalance in consumption regions led to a gap of 12.993 billion euros in total consumption expenditures.

Specifically, Amazon, AliExpress, Zalando, etc. are the most commonly used cross - border online shopping platforms by Spanish users. In a consumer survey conducted by CNMC in the first half of last year, nearly 70% (68.4%) of users often shopped on Amazon, nearly 30% (28.4%) of users often placed orders on AliExpress, and some other users also frequently used Zalando (6.3%) and eBay (4.3%) for cross - border online shopping.

Cross - border e - commerce platforms commonly used by Spaniards. Source: CNMC

For cross - border sellers, such a consumption trend undoubtedly provides good development conditions. Especially for cross - border sellers who have already settled in Amazon or AliExpress, if they plan to expand new business in Europe, Spain is a good choice.

In addition, new sellers can also consider entering emerging e - commerce platforms, such as TikTok Shop and Temu. In April 2023, Temu was officially launched in Spain, and its monthly active users exceeded 5 million in one year. At the end of last year, TikTok Shop opened its Spanish site and fully launched its e - commerce business.

It is worth mentioning that in the new market trend of social e - commerce, Spain also has remarkable performance. A report from market analysis company MikMak pointed out that in terms of revenue, Spanish social e - commerce ranks relatively low among the five key European countries, but in terms of growth rate, the Spanish market takes the lead. It is estimated that by 2027, the number of Spanish social e - commerce users is expected to surpass that of the UK and become the first in Europe.

This means that if sellers start from the concept of social sharing and formulate marketing plans for their products, they can increase product sales to a certain extent and gain more growth opportunities.

02 Cross - border Gold - mining in Europe

In fact, in addition to Spain, as the region with the most concentrated developed countries in the world, the entire European e - commerce industry continues to release market vitality.

Consulting firm Forrester predicts that from 2024 to 2029, the European online market will maintain steady growth. It is estimated that sales will increase from 389 billion euros in 2024 to 565 billion euros in 2029. At the same time, the proportion of online sales will further expand. Especially in the five key markets, the proportion of online sales will reach 21%, an increase of about 5 percentage points compared with 2024.

The continuous growth of the European e - commerce market. Source: ecommercenews.eu

Beyond the market scale, the volatile trade environment is also prompting cross - border enterprises to explore more diverse European markets. Since the beginning of this year, TikTok Shop and Temu have accelerated their business expansion in Europe. At the beginning of the year, TikTok Shop opened three major sites in Germany, Italy, and France, and Temu opened up to local European sellers in the UK, Spain, etc.

Even the global e - commerce giant Amazon has actively recommended the European site to sellers. In mid - April, some top sellers on the US site reported that they received emails from Amazon inviting them to settle in the European site, which introduced the potential of the European market and the benefits of settling in Amazon's European site.

Meanwhile, some small and medium - sized sellers have adjusted their directions. For example, cross - border sellers of bamboo handicrafts from Maoming, who originally mainly targeted the US market, immediately started to expand their business as soon as the tariffs increased. They made a lot of European contacts at the Canton Fair and soon received orders worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from French customers.

European customers inquiring about products. Source: Southern Metropolis Daily

Data from the General Administration of Customs shows that in the first five months of this year, China's exports to the EU reached 1.57 trillion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 7.7%, which to some extent offset the impact of the decline in exports to the US caused by US tariffs.

Of course, for Chinese sellers to explore the European market, European platforms also need the strength of Chinese sellers to expand their competitive advantages. Since the second half of last year, Limango, a wholly - owned sub - platform of the German Otto Group, Fnac & Darty, the second - largest e - commerce platform in France, Fruugo, a local e - commerce platform in the UK, eMAG, a Romanian e - commerce platform, Onbuy, an emerging UK platform, and Bol, the leading e - commerce platform in the Netherlands, have successively extended olive branches to Chinese sellers.

Bol, the leading e - commerce platform in the Netherlands. Source: Bol

It can be seen that whether settling in cross - border platforms or local platforms, Chinese sellers have many choices when going global to Europe. In terms of niche markets, in addition to the five key markets, there are also niche markets such as the Netherlands, Poland, and Hungary, which can provide more diverse choices for cross - border sellers. It is believed that with strong supply - chain capabilities, Chinese sellers can also create a more glorious situation when competing in Europe.

This article is from the WeChat official account “Cross - border Frontier”. Author: Hua Shao. Published with permission from Qiantang.