The Secretary of State for Commerce, Xiana Méndez, presented today the platform ‘Connected Commerce’, a space for information and collaboration for the retail trade, with the aim of promoting its competitiveness and accompanying its digital transformation.

The platform offers training, communities and resources to promote the digital transformation of the retail trade, which constitutes nearly 5% of the GDP of the Spanish economy, with more than 1.9 million members of the Social Security.

The online space will also centralize information on the different aids and subsidies directed to the sector by all the administrations, both from the Central Administration and the Autonomous Communities and local entities.

With the launch of this platform, the government reinforces its support to local commerce so that it can face the challenges generated by new consumer habits, new sales channels and the green transition.

For the Secretary of State for Trade, Xiana Méndez, the role played by the trade sector in our economy is crucial as an engine of growth and job creation. This activity faces constant changes and challenges, especially in the era of technological progress and digitalization. This is where innovation and training come into play, fundamental pillars for their competitiveness.

And he added that commerce is much more than just a commercial transaction, it’s an experience, it’s a connection between people who are part of the same community. Together we can build a future where tradition and digitization coexist.

Always connected, always together

The platform also aims to create a network at national level that connects all entities, administrations and individuals linked to retail. A collaboration space for the Spanish commercial sector that boosts its competitiveness and the improvement of its processes.

To do this, it contains a networking space to share success stories and exchange experience and knowledge to address the challenges of your activity. Hence the motto of the platform is "Always connected, always together".

'Commerce Connected' has more than 300 multimedia contentspan on various topics ranging from how to carry out business digitization, how to boost online sales, improve the relationship with customers or improve the optimization of internal processes to be more competitive, among others.

The platform is born from the conclusions of a report commissioned by the Secretary of State for Trade to the Autonomous University of Madrid to make an x-ray of the needs of local commerce after the shock generated by the pandemic. The study identified that the main needs of the sector were the physical and digital management of sales channels (called 'omnichannel'), greater use of information technologies and the implementation of logistical improvements for small businesses.

The report also showed that only 11.78% of companies offered information on their commercial offer through a website and 4.82% allowed the user to place an online order. An even lower percentage, 2.94% of merchants offered the possibility to track the order online.

Local commerce is a strategic sector that contributes about 5% of the GDP of the Spanish economy, with more than 1.9 million Social Security affiliates.

In addition to this initiative, the Ministry of Commerce has implemented various measures to support the modernization of retail trade. These include the 'Programs to support the competitiveness of trade', through the annual agreement with the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, as well as the aid to the sector that has been granted in the last three years through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, with European funds.

In the period 2021-2023, 415 million euros have been mobilized from the European funds of the Recovery Plan for the commercial sector in order to finance plans and projects of technological, innovative and sustainability content throughout Spain.

Dspan>between these, including the three lines of aid aimed at markets (sustainable markets in urban areas; sustainable markets in rural areas; and strengthening trade in tourist areas) with a total allocation of 315 million euros from 2021 to 2023.

To these lines, 100 million euros have been added from the Technological Fund that has been managed by the Autonomous Communities. These grants directly target small and medium-sized businesses in the commercial sector to promote technology solutions projects that improve the purchasing experience, efficiency and sustainability of the commercial sector.