Marc Schillaci - Oxatis Founder and CEO

Report from the 2nd Price Minister Round Table in Madrid

As promised, a small report summing up the Second Price Minister Round Table that took place last Wednesday in Madrid. This was an excellent initiative that allowed the major players in the e-commerce sector to share ideas and discuss current issues affecting the market (see the participant list). To see the original version, check out Carlos Blanco's blog from Grupo ITnet.

Some of the facts and figures referred to during the Madrid meeting concerning the e-commerce market in Spain:

• In Quarter 4 2008: 1.249 million Euros in e-commerce sales with 17.2 million transactions (credit card transactions only). This represents a 22% increase compared with the same period the year before.

• 6,500 million Euros in sales in 2008, 5,200 million of which were credit card payments (an increase of 39% from 2007).

• Decreased growth in Quarter 4 2008 (increase of only 22%) compared with 2007 (51%) and 2006 (60%).

• In 2009, 86% of Internet users claim that they plan to purchase online, whereas a smaller 77% claimed the intent to do so in 2008.

• The e-commerce market is still in its infancy. There is a large growth and development potential for e-commerce in Spain.

• In 2008, 9 million Internet users purchased a product or service on the Internet.

• Critical point: There are gaps in terms of logistics and transportation.

• Because of fraud, cash on delivery is no longer an available payment method.

• There is a lack of alternative payment methods.

• Spanish companies need to turn toward Europe before trying to conquer South American markets. 

Points the Spanish government and administration need to improve upon to encourage e-commerce:

• 69% of e-commerce users think that the government isn't doing enough to help.

• The fact that Spaniards speak so little English is an obstacle. The Spanish government needs to take measures to improve the English skills of its citizens. 

• The level of data protection laws in Spain does not favor e-commerce growth. For example, recommending a product to a friend is prohibited in Spain.

I hope you found this report interesting!

Till next time, and thanks again to Carlos Blanco!

Marc

E-Commerce: 2nd Price Minister Round Table in Madrid

Today, Norma Bustamante, Oxatis manager in charge of the Spanish market, along with Hervé Bourdon, our International Marketing Manager, is taking part in a Price Minister Round Table, to which we have been invited through our press agency Marco des Communicacion.

This round table will bring together various important Internet players in Spain in order to discuss the current situation concerning e-commerce. The first round table took place last year and Rodolphe Carpintier wrote up a good summary on his blog (in Spanish).

This year, the theme of the meeting is: "The economic crisis and its impact on e-commerce".

To talk over the current situation, Price Minister invited the following key market players:

• Olivier Mathiot, Co-founder and Vice-President of PriceMinister
• Javier Zapatero, General Manager of Google Spain
  
• Carlos Blanco, General Manager of Grupo Itnet
• David Ducos, Founder and CEO of Vipventa
• Benjamín Coll, CEO of Shopall
• Selva Orejón, Community Manager of Netro for Grupo Planeta
• Vicenç Martí, Sales and Marketing Manager for Vueling
  
• Francisco Javier García Vieira, Director of Planning and Programs for Red.es
• José Luis Zimmermann, CEO of AECEM y FECEMD
• Hervé Bourdon, International Marketing Manager for Oxatis :)

Hervé Bourdon will be representing small Spanish e-merchants, who are  increasingly abundant and are truly factored in to the e-commerce market from here on out.

This round table is taking place at the Eurostar Madrid Tower, a 5 star hotel in the center of Madrid. This meeting is not open to the public and only a few handpicked journalists have been invited.

I can't wait to hear Hervé's feedback!

Have a great day :)

Marc

Retrospective foresight...

I had a wonderful time last night, in the company of several Oxatis pillars: Our new manager in charge of the Italian market and our Canadian manager. After a long day's work, we found ourselves at a little restaurant by the sea on the Marseille coastline (around "les Goudes" for those who know). And, what do you know, after a few minutes we started talking about the history of the Internet and, especially, about its future.

Even though they were very (very) often wrong, we were all really impressed by certain predictions that were (if not completely, but in large part) right-on. There was one in particular that caught my attention and that I wanted to share with you.  It is currently 2009. This flash film (sorry, there was no YouTube at the time) dates back to 2004 and sweeps through the progression of 10 years of news on the net, finishing in 2014. Predicting what's going to happen during 10 years on the web is like trying to guess what you will be doing 40 years from now… 5 years have gone by (or 20 years of normal life, if you will), and even though there are several significant miscalculations, you have to admit that the vision is pretty accurate.

For better or for worse, check out EPIC… by clicking on the following link: http://www.broom.org/epic/ols-master.html (8 minutes)

Till next time,
Marc

Edit - 2 May 2009 - Here's the video

And for the total fanatics, the EPIC 2015 version, less... optimistic!

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