The effect of the financial crisis in the Spanish e-commerce

Abstract: Title: The effect of the financial crisis in Spanish E-commerce. Authors: Leyre Pardina and Miren Sasigain Supervisor: Venilton Reinert Level: Bachelor in Business Administration, Marketing Key words: Consumers’ behavior, financial crisis, e-commerce, internet, Spanish, online purchasing, decreasing salaries, financial crisis affection… Purpose: The main goal of our research is to find out the change in Spanish consumers’ buying behavior towards the e-commerce due to the crisis. Method: The selected research method is an explorative research followed by descriptive one. - Secondary data has been collected from written and unwritten sources. Books at Halmstad University’s Library and academic journals and other articles found in the University’s Databases had been used. The online research conducted has been useful too; sources such as blogs, online magazines and newspapers have been our primary fonts. - Primary data has been obtained through a survey among a sample of Spanish households. The selected research instrument is a survey. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework has been divided into two main parts: the consumer buying behavior and the E-Commerce. In the first part, the consumer buying behavior is defined, as well as the factors affecting it and the consumer buying behavior process. In the second part, the E-Commerce is defined and the internet as a buying venue is explained. Conclusion: The last part is formed by the conclusion of all the findings. The e- commerce among the sample is growing but in a slow path. Moreover, it can be added that the sample, despite being directly affected or not by the financial crisis (in terms of income), concludes that the online consumption of the individuals within the sample has been affected by the financial crisis in a negative way (less consumption). The limitations of the study as well as some suggestions for further researches are added in this section.