Jose Ruiz and Carlos Martin are the founders of : two entrepreneurial friends who decided to create a marketplace dedicated 100% to products of Spanish origin. As explained on its website, Spainity was born with two main objectives: to help consumers around the world to easily distinguish the origin and quality of products from our country and to support national manufacturers and distributors so that they have access to a digital and global sales channel in a simple and accessible way. To learn a little more about their history and their future plans for this marketplace, we have spoken with them.
What was it that prompted you to carry out this project?
José: The idea of Spainity arose in 2014 when Carlos and I were studying a Master’s degree at the University of Valencia. We identified that the vast majority of the population of our country was consuming foreign products for lack of knowledge that in Spain they could also cover those same needs with a product of the same or higher quality at a reasonable price.
So why weren’t they reaching consumers? And we had it clear, because there was a lack of a digital and global sales channel that would unify all the wonders of our country to facilitate the purchase of products with our denomination of origin to anyone. It remained as an idea and each one took their professional path, but in 2020 we got together again to make the project we had in mind for so long a reality, since that need continued to exist until we created spainity.com
Do you think that ‘Made in Spain’ brands have it more difficult due to high production costs or competition for imports from other countries?
Carlos. It is undeniable that production costs in Spain are higher than those of other countries outside the European Union, but what is also undeniable is the strength of the mark Spain, a value that we at Spainity want to recover and promote, since any product manufactured in Spain has extraordinary quality. We are a country rich in all kinds of products, not only in gastronomy.
Do you think that the Spanish consumer values the ‘made in Spain’ label?
Carlos. Increasingly. Especially in the wake of the pandemic Awareness of this has increased a lot. The first step for them to buy our products outside of Spain is that we also do it inside. This will greatly enhance the GDP of our country. In fact, a study that we read just before the launch of Spainity caught our attention, in which 70% of users who were surveyed “They assured that they preferred to buy a product with a Spanish denomination of origin compared to a foreigner, despite the fact that it was somewhat more expensive”.
In short, if we value everything we produce here, the rest of the world will too. This is a must.
Who is your main consumer target? Spaniards buying Spanish brands or foreign public?
José. Fortunately, Spainity’s target is very broad, since it is potentially anyone from the European Union who is interested in Spanish products. National sales are the majority, but we are very proud that in a very short time 27% of the current transactions in Spainity already come from outside of Spain. In fact, customers from Italy, , Holland and . We hope to increase this percentage more and more. Internationalization is essential to diversify the income of all the stores associated with the marketplace.
Bearing this in mind, how have you resolved the logistics issue?
Carlos. The experience of sellers and buyers is fundamental in Spainity, both are essential in our digital ecosystem. On the one hand, all our vendors have integrated logistics with usin such a way that they do not have to deposit their products in our logistics center, but they are the ones who have their product at all times.
This means that when any of their products are purchased at , we have a door to door express logistics service, whereby our couriers pass through your address to pick up the order, and send it to the customer’s home. On the other hand, customers have their order as quickly as possible: 24 hours for the peninsula, 48 hours for the Balearic Islands and an average of 4 days for the rest of the European Union.
In addition, Spainity does not transfer the money from the order to the seller, until the buyer confirms that everything is correct. This is an added value to all consumers.
You have many categories of products within the marketplace, did you ever consider specializing in any subject? If yes, why didn’t you finally do it?
José. From the first moment we were clear that the objective was that “If you are Spanish, be in Spainity”. That means that any product made in Spain, has a place in our marketplace. We want to unify all national trade on the same platform for Spain to have its own “Amazon” and that it is not necessary to resort to buying foreign products.
In fact, we currently have 10,000 products from 100 different stores. And they represent 14 different categories: Gastronomy, Fashion, Footwear, Children, Cosmetics, Jewelry, Art, Sports, Masks, Experiences, Electronics, Mobility, Home and Pets. Which grow every day.
Are you happy with the reception and results of Spainity? What future plans do you have for the marketplace?
Carlos. We are very happy with the reception, since we opened with 1,000 products and just over 3 months later we have already exceeded 10,000. We hope to double this amount in the next quarter, since every day we grow both in new sellers that imply new types of product, and in new users that mean more sales.
We are collaborating both in the reinvention of proximity commerceoffering the necessary means to many stores so that their products are accessible to users from all over, as in the diversification of the income of those stores that had already been digitized.
Our future plans include opening new lines of business outside the European Union to promote international transactions. Spanish products not only for all of Europe, but for the whole world. The markets that we are studying for this expansion are mainly the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Japan.
In these difficult times it is time to boost our economy, but we will only achieve it in one way and that is by being united, because as we always say “united, we add together”.
Let’s take a trip back in time. What headline about Spainity would you like to read in Marketing4eCommerce in a year?
Carlos. Spainity reaches 50,000 Spanish products from 20 different categories!
What advice would you give your 2011 self?
José. I would tell him that after the theory, The only way to learn is to be wrong fast preferably make mistakes cheaply and above all make mistakes a lot.
Also, the undertaking of different projects has given me another visionfor which I would have been grateful if they had guided me in their day to train directly in a university career related to business, instead of marketing or communication where I come from, since as long as there are companies generating business, there will be a better economic situation for all.
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