The season of online shopping begins: ready, set, click
With November begins the frantic race to buy gifts, catch bargains and find that whim that has been there all year round in our heads.
Online commerce in Spain continues to grow. Only during the third quarter of 2021 has it experienced an increase of 14%, three points above the global average compared to the same period of 2020, according to the quarterly study carried out by Salesforce Shopping Index. And these data reflect a very positive trend, since while global growth stood at 3% during the previous quarter, in Spain it reached 7%.
The same report highlights that both traffic to ecommerce websites and the number of orders are two aspects in which Spain is also above the world average, since both variables have suffered a 2% year-on-year drop in the set of countries participating in the study, while in Spain they have grown by 8% compared to the third quarter of 2020.
As for the type of product that has accumulated the most sales in the last three months worldwide, it is furniture (59%), followed by bags and suitcases (37%) and luxury bags (30%). On the contrary, those that have fallen the most are those products related to beauty and hair (-36%), food and drink (-21%) and beauty and makeup (-19%).
With an eye on the Christmas campaign, the electronic commerce and system integration company Astound Commerce forecasts that e-commerce sales in our country will be close to 17,000 million euros in the fourth quarter of the year, which coincides with the period of greatest consumption due to the season of offers and purchases, which is equivalent to about 600 euros per person.
Background in ecommerce
The Global Consumer Survey Report study places e-commerce as the purchase channel used by 60% of the Spanish population. In our country, the most significant growth will continue to be registered in the fashion sector, which is also experiencing a greater acceleration in the change from physical stores to the digital channel.
According to data provided by the Valencia Chamber of Commerce, in 2019 e-commerce was one of the busiest sectors and they based this increase on factors such as the development of technology and new consumer habits.
More and more people are seeing how, thanks to e-commerce, they can acquire all kinds of goods and services, both inside and outside the country. Later, the confinement and the pandemic strengthened these advantages.
As highlighted by the National Institute of Statistics, INE, about 19 million people, 53.8% of the population aged 16 to 74, bought online during the third quarter of 2020 for private reasons, compared to 46, 9% from 2019.
It should be noted that while the average cost of each purchase fell to 55.5 euros (5.0 less than the previous year), the average number of purchases grew to 4.9 purchases (0.5 more than in 2019), and 93.6 million purchases were made in total.
Recommendations for shops and online businesses
One of the big problems that online stores face is the impersonation of their website. From INCIBE, the National Cybersecurity Institute, they warn of this type of possible incident for companies since they put their good reputation and all the trust of their clients at risk, ruining all the work carried out.
Cybercriminals copy the look of a real web page and create another fake e-commerce. The fake website duplicates the design of the website it wants to supplant and even uses a very similar URL, using cybersquatting techniques. Through this tactic, criminals register a domain that simulates a legitimate one, to later make this type of fraudulent use. Thus, in this way it is more difficult for buyers to see the deception.
The way to attract customers to these scam sites is through spam email campaigns and advertising to rank high on major search engines. In this way, when a person does a search, the first results would be these false spaces.
Enjoy online shopping… safe
With attractive offers and discounts, it's hard not to start Christmas shopping, resist the temptation to treat yourself to a gift or prepare for your next getaway. And so that this does not become a nightmare, the objective is to avoid fraud and deception, as well as to stay away from compulsive purchases and be wary of “big bargains”.
The appearance of the site already offers some clues such as the legal notice with the terms and conditions, the contact telephone number or the email domain. Regarding the URL, before making a purchase, it is important to verify it, it must start with 'https' and a padlock must appear on the left. This means that the page complies with the SSL security protocol and the information is encrypted.
We must not forget other guidelines that, as an Internet user, every online buyer must take into account, such as having the operating system updated, having an antivirus on all devices or using only trusted WiFi networks. Now, already immersed in the shopping season, we must remember that online shopping can bring great joy in the form of significant savings, but it is also the perfect setting for scams.
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, the 2021-2022 Christmas campaign and the sales period have their pros and cons. Knowing them is having a life jacket that will allow us to navigate and shop safely.
In short, it is about maintaining the same precautions as at any other time.
