Parcelhero: Power Outage in Spain and Portugal to Severely Impact E-Commerce

A massive power cut across large parts of Spain and Portugal will have had a major impact on European Union (EU) cross-border e-commerce, according to the international delivery expert Parcelhero.

A major power outage, which blacked out much of Spain and Portugal on 28 April, and also reportedly briefly impacted regions of France, will have severely disrupted cross-border e-commerce.

Parcelhero’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., explains: “The EU eCommerce market is expected to be worth around £527 billion (US$707.90 billion) this year, according to the business intelligence site Statista: that’s over £1.4 billion (US$1.88 billion) a day. While the transport chaos caused by the power cuts was immediately obvious, the consequences for EU trade will take more time to become apparent. However, with the internet down for hours across most of Spain and Portugal, thousands of potential purchases are likely to have been lost.”

Spain’s e-commerce market is expected to reach £29.70 billion (US$39.81 billion) this year and Portugal, though a smaller market, still has over three million e-commerce shoppers who spend more than £4.03 billion (US$5.4 billion) annually. The shock waves of an internet outage lasting many hours across large areas of both countries could represent many thousands of pounds in lost sales, according to Jinks.

Even once power is restored, consumers in Spain and Portugal will be wary about shopping online until they are certain power won’t fail mid-transaction. Likewise, consumers across Europe will be wary of buying from potentially unstable Spanish and Portuguese sites for a time.

The EU e-commerce market is also vital to UK exporters. Any disruption would be bad news for Britain’s thousands of online traders. In 2019, UK e-tailers generated revenues of £2.8bn from EU-based orders. While this figure may have decreased post-Brexit, countries such as Spain and Portugal are still a significant market for UK-based sellers.

A prolonged power cut in two major EU markets will have an impact on UK exporters’ online revenues, noted Jinks.

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