Electronic commerce continues to grow at a good pace in Spain. Between January and March 2026, online turnover reached 29,643 million euros, 15.1% more than in the same period of the previous year, according to data published this Friday by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC).
The data comes after a record year. In 2025 as a whole, internet sales exceeded 114,800 million euros, 20.6% more than in 2024, and in the last quarter of the year turnover shot up by 22%, to 31,418 million. Compared to these figures, the start of 2026 shows a sector that continues to grow at double digits, although at a somewhat slower speed.
Travel continues to be the driving force of the sector. Travel agencies and tour operators led the billing, with 8.7% of the total, followed by air transport, with 6.4%. Booking vacations, buying plane tickets or contracting tourist packages online is already an established habit for consumers. The burden of travel has also increased. At the end of 2025, agencies represented 7.1% of turnover and the second position was occupied by clothing, with 7%. With the arrival of the new year, spending on Christmas shopping has given way to holiday planning.
The number of operations grew even slightly more than the money invoiced. More than 549 million transactions were recorded in the quarter, 16% more than a year earlier. By number of sales and purchases, the leading sector was gaming and betting, with 9.9% of the total, a sign that these are frequent and small-value operations.
To understand where the money goes, the CNMC divides online purchases into three groups: those of Spaniards on foreign websites, those of foreigners on Spanish websites and those of Spaniards on Spanish websites. The first group is by far the largest.
Spaniards spent 16,604 million euros on foreign websites, 14% more than a year before. That represents 56% of the entire billing for the quarter, and if the number of purchases is counted, the proportion rises to almost two out of every three. Almost all of that money, 94.1%, went to stores in the European Union, where many of the large platforms operating in Spain are based. What was purchased most abroad were financial services, with 9.8%, and clothing, with 8.6%.
Foreigners, on the other hand, spent 3,833 million on Spanish websites, 15.3% more. It is less than a quarter of what the Spanish spent abroad. 64.8% of these purchases came from the European Union and, above all, they were trips: agencies, flights, transportation, car rentals and hotels accounted for 61.6% of spending. In other words, what foreigners in Spain buy the most online is their trip here. The difference between what Spaniards spend abroad and what foreigners spend here leaves a negative balance of 12,771 million euros in just three months. It is an imbalance that is repeated quarter after quarter: at the end of 2025, this deficit reached 14,742 million euros.
Finally, Spaniards spent 9,207 million on Spanish websites, 17% more than a year before. It is the group that grew the most in this quarter, although it has also slowed down: at the end of 2025 it was advancing at a rate of 38.6%. Here, payments to the public administration, such as taxes and social security, led, with 8.5% of the total, a sign that more and more procedures are done online.
Taken together, the data show an increasingly larger market but also more open to the outside world. Spanish consumers buy online more frequently than ever, but a good part of that spending ends up on foreign platforms, while what attracts foreign buyers to Spanish websites continues to be, above all, tourism.
