The trend to buy more and more online does not seem to be reaching its peak. Spaniards are buying more and more products and services online every year, with fashion items topping the ranking of the most purchased. This is one of the conclusions of Fundación Telefónica’s Digital Society in Spain 2022 report, a benchmark publication that portrays the evolution of digitalisation in our country over the last 20 years.

The document analyses the online habits of users and how the adoption of digital technologies by companies and administrations is evolving. It is a research that offers a detailed portrait of the uses and level of digital inclusion, arising from the need for no one to be left behind in digital access and the opportunity to reactivate the Spanish economy, with investments of more than 5,000 million euros and the creation of more than 300,000 jobs.

Shopping, home and technology, the main uses of the Internet by Spaniards in 2021

68.4% of Spaniards with Internet access made a purchase of clothing or footwear during the previous year. Among the uses of online commerce, fashion is not only the most common but also one of the fastest growing compared to the previous biennium (12%), along with household items (an increase of more than 15%).

In fact, household linen, household appliances and decoration are the second most purchased product category in online shopping. Some 64.7% of digital consumers purchased items in this category. This is followed by leisure or culture (53.5%), which includes purchases of tickets to shows and subscriptions to streaming platforms such as Movistar+.

The products and services with the highest number of online consumers in Spain are:

1. Fashion: 68.4%.
2. Home: 64.7% 3.
3. Technology or electronics: 56.8%.
4. Leisure or culture: 53,5 % 5.
5. Travel or staycation: 41,5 % 6.
6. Food: 26.7%.

Digitisation of everyday life: from medical appointments to teleworking

The report Digital Society in Spain 2022 also shows a significant growth in the use of the Internet for day-to-day business, in relations with the Administration or with health services. For example, the number of patients who made medical appointments via the Internet in 2021 was already higher than those who did not: 51.3%, after a growth of 11 points compared to the previous year. At European level, only Finland is ahead of Spain on this indicator.

Teleworking and hybrid work formats are also analysed in this study. Its conclusions show a scenario in which, after the logical decline after the pandemic, 8% of the employed population had their office at home at some point in 2021. This is double the figure for 2019, but still below the EU average of around 12%.

Inequality in internet access

Through many other indicators on digitisation in citizen, economic or educational sectors, Digital Society in Spain shows us that the consolidation of digitisation after the pandemic is a fact. However, it also shows the size of the inequalities in online access due to age, geographic or economic reasons, in other words, the technological gap, the overcoming of which must be a priority for all social agents.

If you want to know more about the degree of adoption and use of the Internet in our country, you have much more data to discover in the report Digital Society in Spain 2022 (Spanish version). And if you still want to take a look back, we suggest you visit the previous publications.