Local commerce declares war on large platforms: "Some kind of control is needed"

BarcelonaCatalan local commerce stands up to large digital sales platforms like Amazon, Shein, or Glovo, accusing them of "unfair competition" and being one of the reasons for the stagnation of its growth. "These new players operate with different rules of the game [...] and concentrate enormous economies of scale that directly impact the competitiveness of our local commerce: some kind of control is needed," Pimec Comerç president, Mònica Gregori, demanded this Monday in a media briefing from Barcelona.

The entrepreneur's statements come within the framework of the second summit of commerce in Catalonia, an annual meeting to advocate for local businesses and the need to make commerce a public policy. According to data collected by the Catalan employers' association, local commerce has experienced discreet sales growth between 2019 and 2026, specifically 6.3%, driven in large part by inflation (and not by a real increase in income). At the same time, the organization observes that, during the same period, shop rents have increased by an average of 38%, energy costs by 45%, and digital services by 62%. Costs associated with social security andpersonnel hiringhave also increased.

Given the rise in costs and the emergence of new digital competitors, Pimec demands the creation of a national commerce pact between the three "vertebrating" agents of the sector – public administration, consumers, and establishments – to have a roadmap that allows facing the "profound" transformation that local commerce is undergoing. "It is about agreeing on positions, putting figures to them and analyzing them jointly to then have budgets allocated to all this execution," Gregori remarked.

In parallel with the national trade pact, the Catalan employers' association has detailed that it is already preparing a study to quantify all the "hidden costs" that large e-commerce platforms save by operating in cities like Barcelona. "It cannot be that they tax abroad, that they do not pay garbage taxes when our streets are full of packaging [...] or that they have delivery drivers in situations that are not entirely transparent. [...] We need to establish regulations aimed at platforms that ensure we all start from the same starting line," insisted the president of Pimec Comerç.

In this regard, the businesswoman, also linked to the artisan bakery sector, believes that the solution to face competition from groups like Amazon, Temu, or Shein could involve imposing some kind of tax and more thoroughly controlling the labor costs of these companies. Be that as it may, Gregori also made it clear that the employers' association will have a clearer stance once the sector analysis report has been prepared.

Generational handover

The sector's other major demand at Monday's conference concerned the lack of generational succession. Through a presentation by Oriol Amat, president of the Pimec Observatory of Catalonia and Professor at UPF-BSM, the employers' association has quantified the magnitude of the problem. In the country, more than half of the people leading family businesses (54%) are over sixty years old. At the same time, only three out of ten businesses have planned for succession, noted the academic, who also pointed out that the lack of generational replacement is one of the main reasons that lead a local business to close.

According to his analysis, only 30% of family businesses reach the second generation, while the percentage of businesses passed down to the third generation drops to 12%. On the other hand, it is estimated that, out of every hundred businesses that open in Catalonia, an average of only three survive 14 years after starting their activity. In this case, Amat recommended that businesses have the "capacity to adapt" and to "professionalize" their management.

Pimec has also called for – within the framework of the future national commerce pact – the establishment of public-private collaborations to either guarantee generational succession or ensure that the commercial activity of a traditional business is maintained.