History of El Corte Inglés in eCommerce: past, present and future of the Spanish retail giant

El Corte Inglés is an indisputable economic and social reference with over 75 years of experience in fashion, leisure, home, cosmetics, food, technology… in Spain- Without wanting or being able to stop it, it has been forced to give up the comfort of traditional commerce to explore the challenges (and virtues) of new sales channels.

History of El Corte Inglés in eCommerce: the (doubtful) first steps

Their online journey over the years has been irregular. El Corte Inglés was one of the first to lead e-commerce in Spain in the late 90s, although not with the firmness it demonstrates today by betting the future of the company on its digital strategy.

El Corte Inglés’ entry into eCommerce, during the presidency of Isidoro Álvarez, lacked conviction, but the economic crisis, the company’s poor results and the arrival of platforms like Amazon, which operate only online, forced a definitive change in the group’s strategic plan to combat online giants, adapt its structure to new market demands, and drive its digitization.

Amazon.es: A reason for growing El Corte Inglés Online

El Corte Inglés had already been operating online for a decade, with various proposals and varying results. After starting with an eCommerce proposal in which the El Corte Inglés supermarket had a leading role, in 2001 it launched El Club del Gourmet online. In 2004, it opened a digital photo printing store in collaboration with Kodak. In 2005, it launched doblecero.com, a website designed to serve the members of its youth fashion loyalty card. By that time, the group’s online turnover already exceeded 85 million euros, which motivated a restructuring of its logistical processes, debuting a new central warehouse in Valdemoro.

By 2010, El Corte Inglés had already decided to start selling fashion online with a proposal that, as explained at the time in Cinco Días, “with more than 300 national and international brands, constitutes the largest offer in fashion brands on the internet”.

Amazon launched in Spain in September 2011. At that time, El Corte Inglés was the leader in Spanish eCommerce with more than 5.5 million unique users and an Internet turnover of more than 310 million euros. It had just launched Primeriti, a private sales club that incorporates fashion brands, accessories, cosmetics, technology, and home.

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In 2012, for the first time, El Corte Inglés announced its firm commitment to e-commerce and the internationalization of the company through an online store open to new European countries, in addition to Portugal, where it has already been operating online. Since the late 80s, the company has maintained various businesses and two large department stores in Lisbon and Porto.

The internet became a fundamental sales channel and the distribution group proposed to improve logistical processes, delivery efficiency, and its relationship with customers and suppliers. Following the example of the internet giant, in that same year, 2012, it launched a flat rate for shipping costs.

2015/2018: The history of El Corte Inglés in eCommerce enters a stage of modernization, integration, and digital transformation.

In the following years, it will invest in innovation and new technologies to advance in digital transformation, which in practice means modernizing and adapting the company’s structure to the new needs and demands of society.

After 2015, El Corte Inglés seeks to face off against Amazon and conquer new markets by taking advantage of the synergies of omnichannel, offering the same shopping experience in all channels and improving competition in shipping costs.

• New mobile application for your supermarket. Available for online shopping at El Corte Inglés and Hipercor supermarkets with the aim of boosting sales in the food sector, a key area in the online environment and also from a logistics perspective.
• Creation of new exclusive spaces for fashion brands to showcase their products online. Following the trend of marketplaces, as of 2015, every brand that requires it gets their own corner within elcorteingles.es and contributes to sales growth. The company has incorporated 200 companies under this new model.
• Click & Express. Before the end of 2015, the department store takes a step forward compared to rival operators like Amazon and announces online order delivery in 2 hours in 6 major cities: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga, Seville, and Bilbao. Currently, 54 cities already enjoy this ultra-fast delivery service.
• Sfera. The fashion and accessories brand, created in 2002, launches its own eCommerce in January 2016.
• Renovation of the commercial network. The company allocates 250 million euros to modernize physical retail spaces, adapting them to new trends.
• Mobile payment with Samsung Pay. Since July 2017, you can pay for your purchases with your mobile phone easily, quickly, and securely, at no additional cost, following the steps indicated by the Samsung application.
• New boost to digitization. More than 200 fashion, accessories, footwear, sports, home, and gourmet product brands take the leap to the global market with the reconversion of elcorteingles.eu into elcorteingles.com and the deployment of their own logistical and operational resources (with the support of international transport operators) to ensure deliveries within 3 to 7 days in the European Union and up to 10 days in the rest of the world.
• Technology and integration. El Corte Inglés announces an investment of 250 million euros in the integration of Hipercor hypermarkets into their department stores and an additional 100 million to boost e-commerce and omnichannel strategy.

2018: Goodbye, Dimas Gimeno. The era of Jesús Nuño de la Rosa begins.

However, Dimas Gimeno’s tenure at the helm of El Corte Inglés lasted less time than he would have liked. After a series of strong controversies with members of the company’s Board of Directors, on June 14, 2018, ECI issued a statement announcing the arrival of Jesús Nuño de la Rosa as the President of the Group.

As that statement explained, “The Board of Directors considers a change of leadership necessary to face future challenges. Jesús Nuño de la Rosa’s extensive experience and long professional career represent a new step in the company’s management professionalization strategy. The new president will be supported by Víctor del Pozo as CEO and retail business expert.”

2022: El Corte Inglés will launch its new logistics division and aims to acquire Tendam

We had already talked about the logistical turn in the business model of El Corte Inglés in 2020, and now with the announcement of Logística Avanzada, the moment has finally arrived. This new subsidiary will bring together 3,500 employees and logistic assets. Although it falls short of the company’s own forecasts, it will be a big step for the multi-store giant.

On the other hand, this new addition of services opens the doors of El Corte Inglés to a deeper level within its marketplace model. According to company statements, they have stores that also serve as warehouses and allow them to be closer to the end consumer; thus achieving a point of differentiation from the competition. This will offer those third parties who sell on their marketplace a more direct and efficient delivery and order management channel.

Although the year is still in its first semester, it has already shown considerable movement for the company. Last February, it attempted to acquire Cortefiel for an estimated 1.25 billion. The acquisition of this conglomerate behind the brands Cortefiel, Springfield, or Women’secret, would represent a new stage in the eCommerce ecosystem for the company. With the acquisition of these brands, El Corte Inglés would be strongly positioned in the fashion industry.

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