Spanish companies pass digital competitiveness tests, although they still have plenty of room for improvement.

'Bankia Index Report 2016: The digitalization of companies in Spain'

The companies analyzed in the report received an average score of five out of ten.

---

Spanish companies They pass in digital competitiveness, although they show ample room for improvement, as they obtain an average score of five out of ten, according to the 'Bankia Index Report 2016: The digitization of companies in Spain.

 

Eight out of ten Spanish companies have already begun their journey towards the digital transformation10,9% have achieved competitiveness in this area, while a majority of 77,8% still show room for improvement. Only 11,3% of Spanish businesses receive a non-competitive rating.

 

The report was prepared using information voluntarily provided by more than 5.000 Spanish companies, SMEs and entrepreneurs through the website www.bankiaindicex.com.

 

Bankia Indexx It's a free tool launched by the financial institution that measures over 100 parameters across nine key areas of digital competitiveness. It analyzes companies' performance in SEO, mobile, user experience, security, content, digital marketing, social media, e-commerce, and web analytics. This provides a competitiveness assessment and an overall score, enabling businesses to identify their strengths and weaknesses and optimize their digital strategies.

 

Goirigolzarri: “The change is already underway and the trend is unstoppable”

 

“When we announced the launch of Bankia Indexx We explained that our goal was to offer Spanish companies a tool that would help them in the process of digitalization in which they were already immersed. The reality we faced just four years ago was that only 14% of Spanish companies sold online. Today, this figure has risen to 20%. This is the best proof that the change is already underway and that the trend is unstoppable,” he states. José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, president of Bankia, in the report.

 

 

 

Eight out of ten businesses have already begun the journey towards digital transformation, although 77% have room for improvement.

 

 

“The results of this report demonstrate the degree of transformation that is already taking place in Spanish companies"But also that, as is the case for us banks, the journey is not over and that there are areas for improvement that can help increase companies' revenue levels," adds the president of the entity.

 

According to the data analyzed, Spanish companies obtain their best results in the area of ​​Web Analytics (6,2), which has become a fundamental tool to understand the habits and tastes of customers, and in the area of ​​Search Engine Optimization (6,1), which constitutes the gateway to the internet.

 

However, there are still areas for improvement, such as enhancing web access via mobile devices, leveraging the advantages offered by social media, and investing in online marketing campaigns. All of these relate to technologies that barely existed a decade ago, "so improvements in these areas will surely come with time," the report states. Thus, the areas with the lowest scores are Mobility (4,3), Social Media (3,9), and Digital Marketing (3,5).

 

 "The E-commerce It offers great opportunities, especially to small businesses and shops, because it allows them to enter markets where a physical presence would be practically unthinkable. It opens a window to the world for them in a very inexpensive way that can be immensely profitable,” he says. Juan Luis Vidal, Corporate Director of SMEs at Bankia.

 

 

Companies master SEO positioning techniques and Web Analytics

 

 

The executive adds that “digital transformation is causing changes in sales channels, in the organization of companies and, above all, in the demands and behaviors of customers, which forces companies to make an effort to adapt and modify the way they relate to their customers.”

 

 Knowing the customer, a key to digital success

 

The report reflects that the Spanish companies They have made a remarkable effort to be present in search engines and have understood that they must analyze the profile of their website visitors, as evidenced by the good results obtained in the areas of Search Engine Optimization and Web Analytics.

 

La web analytics It is the primary method for understanding the performance of companies' digital strategies and for studying customer habits. Spanish companies have introduced the use of analytics tools on their websites, but there is still room for improvement: 39% still do not have any measurement tool. However, once they have such a tool, the percentage that uses it reaches almost 94%.

 

 

Mobility and Social Networks, key opportunities for improvement for Spanish companies

 

Understanding the customer is fundamental to providing them with the content they demand. 63,6% of companies update their content at least once a month. However, audiovisual content is only present on 25,6% of the websites analyzed. Based on this data, the report suggests that introducing more multimedia elements to web pages would be advisable, as it has been proven to be more appealing to customers.

 

Likewise, companies are incorporating the digital sale of products and services and understand the need to work on the security of their digital businesses to protect both their data and that of their customers.

 

Companies do not present “critical” security vulnerabilities (48% are robust in this area, and the rest have a score that needs improvement). One of the main weaknesses detected relates to “programming errors,” those vulnerabilities that a hacker could exploit to launch an attack on the website (47,2% received a non-competitive score).

 

Mobility and Social Networks, the great opportunities

 

  social media These, along with mobility, are the areas of digitalization where Spanish businesses have the greatest potential to increase their competitiveness.

 

Mobile internet access and social media use are some of the main trends shaping the new digital habits of Spanish society. Despite this, the use of social media by Spanish companies is still not widespread. Seven out of ten do not have a profile on social media. LinkedInA social network focused on professional relationships. 51,9% of companies do not have a page on it. Facebook and 45,2% do not have a profile in Twitter.

 

 

 

Asturian companies, boosted by the numerous companies analyzed in the retail sector, obtained the best score, a 5,3.

 

 

Companies can also improve their use of social media as a sales tool. Although 66,5% of companies maintain customer databases and use them for marketing purposes, a similar percentage (62,7%) do not use social media as a platform for launching digital campaigns. Consequently, when measuring relevance or influence on social media, only 19,2% of Spanish companies achieve a competitive score.

 

The widespread availability of internet access via phones and tablets is transforming business across all sectors of the digital economy. Companies face the challenge of adapting to their customers' new habits and offering them the same features they already find on traditional websites.

 

For all these reasons, the Mobility It is a fundamental area for the future of digitalization and requires special attention from companies. Often, improvements can be simple, such as speeding up website loading time (37,7% of the businesses analyzed are not competitive in this area).

 

E-commerce is consolidating its position as a catalyst for digitalization

 

La Internet sale This is one of the great advantages of digitalization, which a good number of Spanish shops and businesses are already taking advantage of. Especially for small businesses and shops, the e-commerce It offers enormous possibilities to increase sales, compete with larger corporations, and internationalize your business.

 

El E-commerce It also emerges as a significant driver of digitalization. Companies with websites focused on sales obtain a significantly higher overall score (5,5) than those that only provide information (4,8) about their products or services. Similarly, the percentage of these entities with competitive scores (19,4%) is higher than that of those that do not aim to sell (8%).

 

International Business

 

El cross-border business It is one of the main growth niches for e-commerce, given that more than 55% of purchases made by Spanish internet users are carried out in online stores of companies based outside of Spain. However, only half of the Spanish companies that sell online allow purchases from other countries.

The vast majority of companies that are dedicated to E-commerce It has a secure purchase seal and takes advantage of the possibilities offered by online payment, integrating into its web pages both payment with virtual POS (75%) as well as with other less traditional alternatives (66,7% have PayPal and 8,5% iupay).

 

Performance would be boosted in the future by increasing the security of its web pages to convey trust to the customer and improving its adaptation to mobile devices, since more than five million people use a smartphone or tablet to make their purchases, representing 24,7% of those who shop online.

 

Digitalization, by sector

 

The retail sector and larger companies are leading the way in digitalization

 

Technology services, such as telecommunications, electronics, and IT, have made the most progress in digitalization. However, the economic activity that achieves the best overall score (5,5) is wholesale and retail trade, which has successfully embraced the internet to reach its customers and leverage the advantages of online sales.

 

Companies in this sector excel in the proper use of the techniques used in Digital marketing (their score is 31% better than the average) and the exploitation of e-commerce tools, where they obtain a result 26% higher than the rest of the companies.

 

Similarly, the manufacturing and textile industry It has also started its digital transformation and is achieving good results in the area of ​​e-commerce, with a score of 6,7, but it can improve its adaptation to mobile devices and the social media environment.

Agriculture, livestock and fishing: better than average in e-commerce

 

The advantages of digitalization are evident in the ratings obtained by such a traditional economic activity as agriculture, livestock farming, and fishing. This sector, which by its very nature belongs to the rural sphere, has found in the internet a way to reach its customers with its products. Its score in the area of e-commerce It is 7,5% better than the average.

 

The hotel and tourism sector, on the other hand, receives a modest score of 4,9. In a digital world where trips are planned from a computer screen and destinations are chosen based on social media recommendations, it is essential that small Spanish businesses improve their online presence.

 

Large companies are leading the digitalization process in Spain and particularly excel in more technical areas such as those of Security, Digital Marketing and Web Analytics.

 

SMEs are better than large companies at 'user experience'

 

Despite everything, smaller companies achieve similar results with fewer resources in crucial areas such as SEO and User Experience. Even in the area of ​​Mobile Optimization, specifically in their adaptation to mobile devices, they achieve results 10% better than large corporations.

 

In the area of Ecommerce Micro-enterprises and the self-employed are also achieving results similar to those of large companies. This reflects the 'digital vocation' of Spanish entrepreneurs and the efforts they are making to sell their products and services online.

 

Entrepreneurs have understood that their businesses must have a presence on the internet, on social media and on their customers' mobile phones, and that they can compete with online promotional campaigns without investing huge advertising budgets and expensive spaces on commercial streets.

 

Digitization, by autonomous communities

 

Most of the companies analyzed by Bankia Indexx They are concentrated in the economic centers of Madrid and CataloniaBoth regions scored above the national average (5,1 and 5,2 respectively). However, other territories, such as the Chartered Community of Navarre and the Region of Murcia, achieved results similar to those of the country's major economic engines.

 

The companies of Principality of AsturiasBoosted by the large number of companies analyzed belonging to the trade sector, they obtain the best average score in the country, with a 5,3.

 

On the other hand, the companies that score lower correspond to Estremadura (4,5) Castilla la Mancha (4,7) and Galicia, La Rioja and the Basque Country, all with a 4,9. A ranking that closes the companies of the Autonomous Cities of Ceuta and Melilla, with an average rating of 4,2.