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“I remember that when it was launched we had been awake and nervous for many hours until the first purchase arrived.” So he lived Eva Madrid, senior ACES Manager de Amazon, the entry of the first order from Jeff Bezos’ company in Spain just now 10 years ago. It took 30 seconds after midnight on September 15 and included the Spanish Penal Code, sent to a client in Archena (Murcia).
Some beginnings that Ruth Díaz, vice president of Amazon Fashion Europe, remembers as if from a startup it was. “We were an authentic startup with very few people at launch. They worked from the Luxembourg and Paris offices because there was no office yet in Madrid [llegó un año después]”, He assures Invertia.
It is no coincidence that these two Spanish directives speak of Amazon’s 10th anniversary in Invertia. They both know what it’s like to create something from scratch. Both come from BuyVip, startup that Amazon bought before his arrival in Spain. Specifically in 2010; so they know the ecosystem of the giant of the ecommerce to perfection.
Ruth Díaz, vice president of Amazon Fashion Europe.
Hence they recognize that the beginnings were “Exciting” e “Intense” until the American culture of Amazon managed to adapt to the Spanish. Something necessary if they wanted to make a dent in the country. And they soon succeeded.
But it wasn’t that easy. “Today you see different things, but at that time we were trying to convince people that Amazon was good for SMEs and customers,” says Ruth Díaz. And was it difficult to convince customers and consumers? The answer is yes. Amazon was a disruption and the ecommerce it was not very developed in our country.
Now all that is part of a past that although it may seem like it, is not so distant. “I compared Amazon 10 years ago, when people bought sporadic products like a kindle for a birthday present,” Eva Madrid recalls. “And now they are no longer specific products. Now if I need milk, I buy it on Amazon because tomorrow I have it with Amazon Prime“, Add. For years, the company has agreements with chains such as Dia.
Eva Madrid, senior ACES Manager de Amazon.
In these years, growth has been unstoppable with services such as same-day delivery, Amazon Fresh, delivery on the launch day or Amazon Lockers. Although the star of their products is Amazon Prime Through which customers in Spain also enjoy free deliveries in one day on 2 million products and unlimited and free deliveries in two or three days on millions of products, as well as video or music services.
From these services, other curiosities of the giant of the e-commerce in Spain such as, for example, that the best-selling item in the last 10 years is the Echo Dot third generation.
And the ebook The best-selling Kindle on Amazon.com in the last 10 years is ‘Reina Roja’, by Juan Gómez-Jurado; while ‘La Suerte de los Idiotas’, by Roberto Martínez Guzmán, is the ebook most requested self-published via KDP.
Not without controversy
His ten years in Spain have also been surrounded by some controversy. From the beginning they have been accused of ending the small merchant, reaching the point that municipalities such as Barcelona asked to boycott Amazon to favor the little ones.
Amazon in El Prat de Llobregat.
Something that the company has always defended itself for. “Small businesses can also benefit from Amazon with millions of potential customers,” says Eva Madrid. In 2020, the 12,000 Spanish SMEs that sell on Amazon exported 650 million euros, 30% more than the previous year.
An example of this is Amazon Fashion, which has been in operation for 13 years in Europe, and in Spain since 2014. Right now, “we sell all kinds of well-known brands such as Lacoste or Levis; Spanish brands (Tous, Desigual …) or small brands ”, says its vice president. An ecosystem in which everyone coexists.
Regarding working conditions, they have also been criticized at times by the unions. To which the company defends itself by opening its doors. “Working at Amazon is fantastic. When there have been doubts, what we have done is to open the facilities so that they can see how the warehouses work ”, argues Ruth Díaz.
Job boom
The history of the company in our country has an important dimension in economic terms. Since Amazon started its activity in Spain, the company has invested more than 6,800 million euros in infrastructure and facilities, shipping and transportation, salaries for employees, as well as other logistics expenses.
Amazon’s network of operations in Spain began in 2012 with the San Fernando de Henares logistics center (Madrid).
Amazon Center in Illescas (Toledo).
Since then, the company has opened logistics centers in El Prat (Barcelona), Martorelles (Barcelona), Castellbisbal (Barcelona), Illescas (Toledo), Dos Hermanas (Seville), Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), and recently announced that it will open two robotic logistics centers in Illescas (Toledo) and Corvera (Murcia) this month .
In addition, Amazon also has three urban logistics centers in Madrid and Barcelona, which provide fast deliveries through Amazon Fresh. Likewise, the company has two distribution centers, located in Getafe (Madrid) and Barberá del Vallés (Barcelona), and nineteen logistics stations throughout the country. Total, Amazon’s current network in Spain encompasses more than 30 different centers.
To this we must add that Amazon announced that in 2021 it will create 3,000 new permanent jobs in Spain, bringing its workforce to a total of 15,000 employees, doubling its fixed workforce in the country in two years, from the 7,000 employees at the end of 2019.
On the other hand, Amazon is rapidly growing its development centers of software -Tech Hubs- in Madrid and Barcelona, where almost 600 software developers, computer engineers and data scientists work on applications for Amazon Business, Kindle and books, retail and artificial intelligence.
Something for the vice president of the fashion division reflects Amazon’s commitment to Spanish talent.
And how far will Amazon go in Spain? Well perhaps to space, as its creator, Jeff Bezos, has already done. At the moment it does not seem to have limits, as does the professional development of the two Spanish directors who have progressed within the companies in various management positions and for which these ten years have flown by.
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Reference-www.elespanol.com