Traditionally, an imported fashion like Black Friday, which pushes consumers to advance their Christmas shopping and do it online, has been the “enemy” of the physical store and the traditional Catalan commercial structure. But that could be changing.
According to the EAE Business School study “Sustainability in current e-commerce”, electronic commerce is presented as a great opportunity for SMEs in Catalonia, especially in technology (65.19%), fashion (56.96%). and tickets (48.37%), since they are the most common purchases made by Catalans via the internet.
Black Friday begins the highest consumption period of the year, which extends into Christmas and can become strategic for many businesses. And in this period, impulse purchasing is even more accentuated, which is one of the main motivations of consumers and which is more difficult to occur in physical commerce. A compulsive online purchase that 74.05% of Catalans admit to having made on some occasion.
The report also reveals that 6.96% of Catalans buy online whenever they can, not only at peak times such as Black Friday. In fact, between 25% and 40% of Catalans regularly shop online. The districts of Lleida (50%) and Tarragona (65%) are the areas of Catalonia that buy the most through electronic commerce, ahead of Girona or Barcelona.
Regarding the returns of online purchases, one of the concerns of many small and medium-sized business owners, the study confirms that the majority of Catalans, 50.63%, return their online purchases only punctually and 47.47 % never returns them.
In order to gain a foothold with a small business in such a competitive ecosystem, it is essential to commit to digitalization and to provide excellent experiential online shopping, mixed, whenever applicable, with the experience and added value of the physical store.
The first thing that small and medium-sized merchants learn to take into account is that digital success does not lie solely in the implementation of tools haphazardly, but in the strategic vision that supports each of their movements.
For example, before starting to promote yourself on a social network like TikTok, you have to know what it can offer us, in addition to more or less nice videos.
An example of getting a good tangible return on that social network is the case of Walmart. The chain of large shopping centers in the United States used this platform to create a filter with the offers available in store. And when customers clicked on it, they were redirected to the purchase page. This filter became the first in the United States to incorporate the video shopping label. It is an example of a large company, but one that any small business can apply.
The most advanced are already beginning to include programs and applications with AI in their digital marketing toolkit, to create, for example, dynamic and personalized sales landing pages in just a few minutes, adapted to the individual preferences of users.
The tools are there, and so is the maturity of the buyer who searches, compares and has become accustomed to buying regularly over the internet. The only thing missing is for SMEs to know how to use all the resources to connect with their customers.
In this context, EAE Business School Barcelona promotes digital transformation in SMEs in Catalonia with programs aimed at its professionals and financed 100% by the Next Generation funds of the European Union. In addition to being free, they offer the flexibility to adjust the duration according to the individual needs of each participant.
It is a direct way to facilitate the effective implementation of the digitalization process of SMEs, through the design of specialized courses that offer the necessary knowledge and tools.
These courses provide a comprehensive view of digital transformation, addressing key aspects such as digital strategies, online marketing, change management and process optimization. As always, both purchases, clients and training are just a click away.
