The impact on the national economy of Spanish SMBs selling on Amazon

'The economic impact of Spanish SMBs that sell through Amazon marketplace' is the title of the report commissioned by Amazon and elaborated by PwC, which measures the contribution of small and medium-size businesses (SMB) to the Spanish economy and their role as drivers of economic growth and job creation in 2020.

The analysis highlights that for every euro contributed by SMBs selling on Amazon to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), €2.8 is generated in the Spanish economy as a whole, which raises the aggregate impact of Spanish SMBs selling on Amazon to more than €800 million.

This positive impact in terms of contribution to GDP also translates into job creation: of the more than 12,000 Spanish SMBs currently selling on Amazon, around 25% have increased their workforce. In fact, 15% of the SMBs that sell on Amazon have increased their staff by more than 25%.

To date, the Spanish SMBs selling on Amazon permanently employ 30,000 people in Spain to run their online businesses, which is equivalent to almost 70% of the direct jobs created by the pharmaceutical industry or around 40% of the direct jobs created by the telecommunications sector in Spain.

"Amazon offers Spanish SMBs a very powerful catalyst for growth. The data in this report reflects that the company is a great ally for small and medium-sized companies, allowing them to increase their sales volume and exports, which has a positive impact on job creation and the national economy," said Jordi Esteve, Partner responsible of Economics at Strategy&, the area of strategic consultancy at PwC.

Another conclusion of the report is that Amazon offers the opportunity for Spanish SMBs to start selling their products outside Spain: one third of the SMBs surveyed have seen their international sales grow by more than 25%. The top countries where Spanish small and medium-sized companies selling on Amazon export the most are France, with exports of more than €170 million; Germany, with around €145 million and, lastly, Italy, which receives exports of more than €140 million.

Olivares de Altomira is a small family business from the village of Vellisca, Cuenca, that specializes in the production of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. This business started selling its oil in the Amazon store in Europe in 2017 and currently, more than half of its sales on Amazon are exports. "With Amazon, we have managed to get our oil, of the highest quality and organic, to reach customers all over Spain and also in Europe, mainly in France, Germany and Italy," says Begoña Gonzalez Pastor, Master Miller and Cofounder of Olivares de Altomira.

Thanks to the advantages of Amazon in terms of scale, logistics and access to a broad base of national and international clients, SMBs can sell online from anywhere in Spain, helping to combat depopulation in less populated areas. Almost 50% of the Spanish SMBs selling on Amazon are based in cities with less than 50,000 citizens and 65% are based in Spanish provinces outside Madrid and Barcelona.

This, along with the fact that around 60% of the SMBs that sell products in the Amazon store produce at least part of their product catalogue – mainly in the categories of home, entertainment, electronics, fashion, health and beauty – reinforces the potential value of Spanish SMBs in the national economy.

Xavier Flamand, Vice President of Services for EU Commercial Partners at Amazon highlights: "Small and medium-size businesses are a key pillar of the Spanish economy and at Amazon, we will continue supporting them to boost their growth and offering them the tools, logistics, teams of professionals and education programs that they require to help them to succeed selling online. As part of this support, we are committed to educating 50,000 small businesses and entrepreneurs to sell online in Spain by the end of 2025 through our program Despega."

Read more about how we support SMBs in Europe.