El Corte Ingles sees online sales rise 20%, plans to open Tmall store

Online sales at Spanish retailer El Corte Ingles have increased by more than 20% in 2018, driven by the group’s investment in e-commerce and omnichannel. The company is also opening a store on Tmall, the world’s largest e-commerce platform run by Chinese group Alibaba.

Online sales now account for 4% of the group’s revenues. Last year, the number of orders grew by 17.4%, sales increased 19.7% and website traffic rose 16%. With almost 1.6 million new products made available online in 2018, the website has reached 19.9 million unique monthly users, up 30% on the previous year.

It still has a long way to go, but El Corte Ingles is now the largest online retailer in Spain after Amazon and Alibaba. It is also the only Spanish online retailer whose growth is significantly outpacing the market. “We are outperforming the market in many categories,” said people close to the company.

The Spanish retail giant is strengthening its bet on omnichannel fulfillment, integrating the physical store with its digital business to take advantage of its store estate in Spain and Portugal, which allows it to reach any city in less than two hours. In fact, 83% of Spanish consumers and 67% of Portuguese live less than 40 minutes from one of its stores, and 80% of orders are delivered within 48 hours.

El Corte Ingles has praised its partnership with Chinese giant Alibaba, which it said will allow it to be “stronger” and accelerate its digital transformation and international expansion.

Seven of its labels, including Easy Wear, Fórmula Joven, Green Coast, Free Style, Boomerang y Mountain Proen, are now available to purchase online via AliExpress, and the group announced that by the end of the year it will open a store on Tmall, the world’s largest e-commerce platform.

Also having a presence on Tmall are Spanish brands including Zara, Zara Home, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull and Bear, Stradivarius, Oysho, Desigual, Mango, Pretty Ballerinas, jewellery brand Unode50 and wine brand Osborne.