Spanish companies are increasingly using electronic commerce and technology. 31.6% of them —4.7% more than in 2020— have incorporated online sales during 2021, reaching a total turnover of 313,512.9 million euros. In addition, telematic transactions already account for 20% of total sales of companies with more than 10 employees. This is how it is collected by the survey on the use of ICT (information and communication technologies) and electronic commerce, published this Tuesday by the INE.
The survey shows how the incorporation of technology has evolved in Spanish firms during 2021 and the first quarter of this year. The pandemic introduced important changes in purchasing dynamics and also in work dynamics. The percentage of companies that allow teleworking rises to 40.8% in those with more than 10 employees, with the service sector being the one that uses this method the most: 48.1%. Among companies with less than 10 employees, the percentage that allows teleworking is reduced by 4.5% compared to last year and currently, only 16.5% allow this work model.
Larger companies have a higher percentage of ICT implementation in the workplace. In those with more than 10 employees, 66.1% use computers with an Internet connection. In the case of companies with less than 10 employees, the percentage falls to 46.8%. Among large companies it is also more common to have a website: 78.5% have it compared to 31.8% of small ones. In the industry and services sectors, this percentage exceeds 80%.
The technologies that are least used are robots, with 8.3%, and artificial intelligence, with only 12.6% of corporations that have implemented it. The latter, despite being unrepresentative, has grown by 4.3% compared to the data for the previous year. As far as bigdata, only 9.8% of companies currently use it.
The takeoff of technologies has also increased the hiring of ICT specialists. 17.2% of Spanish corporations have some worker specialized in this matter. A percentage that has grown with respect to the previous data —16.4% in 2020— and that recovers after having fallen two points in 2020 compared to 2019.
The demand for online products has not only increased, but they represent 20% of the total sales of companies with 10 or more employees. Sales through electronic commerce reached 313,512.9 million euros. Through web pages or applications, 128,225.1 million were invoiced and via EDI (electronic data interchange) sales reached 185,287.8 million. The services sector is the one that most takes advantage of digital commerce and 37.2% of these companies sell through this means. In small businesses, the data also improves: 13.2% have carried out electronic transactions in the last year, exceeding the 2020 figure that stood at 10.1%.
