The digitization of small and medium-sized companies has become an essential process for the advancement of their businesses and, although there are those who are reluctant to change, everything points to an abysmal digitization in the future of Spanish companies. The study ‘The Spanish SME in 2022: digital challenges and aspirations’ developed by the leading company in digitization technology solutions for SMEs and the self-employed in Spain, BeeDIGITAL, shows that 70% of SMEs will invest in digitization in the next three years.
Currently, almost half (49%) of Spanish SMEs consider that your digitization level is low or medium low, and only 12% believe they are highly digitized. To develop this digitization, SMEs claim to have two priority areas: digital marketing (for 8 out of 10) and customer management (6 out of 10).
On average, businesses expect allocate between €1,000 and €3,000 per year to this digitization. The main objectives are to increase their presence on the Internet to reach a greater number of customers (64%), protect themselves against cyber attacks (52%) and digitize customer service, through web chat or through social networks (51%) .
“In Spain, SMEs have a greater weight than the European average in both economic income and employment, hence their special relevance within the national productive fabric. These still have a wide margin to promote their digitization in aspects such as digital presence, e-commerce big data or Artificial Intelligence. The possibility of integrating technology in companies combined with human capital offers us a wide field of improvement in which to work”, explains Javier Castro, CEO of BeeDIGITAL.
Customers: the center of digital investment for SMEs
Both its digitization forecasts and the path traveled so far demonstrate the concern of SMEs to get closer to their customers and participate in the online market, where 90% of purchases are already started. 87% of SMEs have a website and 31% incorporate online sales options. However, more than half state that they do not always keep this channel up to date.
In addition to the lack of updating, there are deficiencies in web design and structure that hinder the visibility of businesses on the Internet: 4 out of 10 fail to appear on the first page of Google results. Something similar happens in the case of social networks. 7 out of 10 SMEs say they use their social networks as a means of communication to contact customers. But, 86% have not published anything in the last two months and 46% in the last 6 months. This little activity can make them less relevant compared to other competitors and reduce the effectiveness of their digital marketing actions. As for campaigns in Google Ads and Facebook Ads, just over half of SMEs claim to have carried them out.
Beyond online investment, businesses have started to implement digitization in other areas. More than half use digital applications for financial and accounting management, and 6 out of 10 have contracted legal and IT digital services. The least developed area is cybersecurity: only 1 in 3 SMEs is protected.
“There is a real intention on the part of Spanish SMEs to advance in digitization, and the data shows that we are on the right track. The investment forecasts will allow the solutions implemented to date to be consolidated and help SMEs to continue with their digital transformation. At BeeDIGITAL we are committed to the mission of promoting and facilitating the digitization of SMEs. In this line, we are now working on the Digital Presence Index, which will help small businesses to know their digital situation and that of their most direct competitors, in order to be able to advise them in a much more personalized way on how to advanceCastro concludes.
