Consumer spending continued to increase in 2019 in France but at a slower rate. It was expected to have risen by only 1.8% compared to 3.3% in 2018. On the one hand, the Spanish economy still faces great uncertainty, while on the other, the country is maintaining its expansionary growth cycle, and should continue to grow in the coming years. Growth in spending on electrical items is also likely to have experienced a slowdown to 1.5%.

IT and telecoms specialists’ revenues appear to have resumed growth since 2018, albeit at a much slower pace as the sector continues to be impacted by the lengthening of replacement cycles for both mobile phones and consumer electronics in general.

Online retailing is still a relatively underdeveloped activity in Spain. Our latest estimates are that online sales of electricals represented 13.7% of all spending on electricals in Spain in 2018, with a value of approximately €1.63 billion. In 2019, we expect this figure to have risen to €1.69 billion (including VAT). The major specialist chains continue to invest in improving their online offers so that they are competitive with the likes of Amazon and are also looking to leverage their stores to focus on a service-oriented offer, something which Amazon cannot do so effectively as those with a store estate.

This report covers the electrical goods market in Spain, with a focus on electrical specialists, including high street and out-of-town operators. The report does not cover non-specialists, such as department stores and hypermarkets, in detail although these are looked at briefly in the Channels of Distribution section and also in our consumer research.

The report combines analysis of the market in Spain, including market sizes, specialists’ sales and forecasts, along with our in-depth consumer data, which analyses shoppers’ behaviour.

For our consumer research this year we asked questions on the following topics:

• Which electrical/electronic products had been purchased over the last year

• How consumers are shopping for electrical/electronic products, in-store and online

• Which retailers had been used when shopping for electrical/electronic products

• Agreement with a selection of attitude and behavioural statements relating to electrical/electronic products

For the purpose of this report, Mintel has used the following definitions:

Consumer spending: The total amount spent by French households (including sales tax) on:

• Appliances

• Audio, photo and information devices and accessories

• Phones and other devices used to communicate.

Retail sales: total sales of all types of goods and services (excluding sales tax) via stores and directly to the consumer by specialist retailers of electrical items. It includes online sales of these retailers where the majority of sales are in bricks and mortar outlets.

Channels of Distribution: Mintel estimates of the proportions of spending on electrical items via other channels, including the grocers, mixed goods retailers and non-store retailers.