Amazon to set up SME support center for southern Europe in Barcelona

• The new facilities in 22@Barcelona will create 500 new jobs
• This is the American e-commerce giant’s fourth investment in Catalonia

Amazon is once again banking on Barcelona. The American e-commerce giant has announced Barcelona will be home to its center to support and advise SMEs in southern Europe that use its platform to sell their products. The new facilities, which will create 500 new jobs over three years, will be located in the 22@Barcelona technology district.

Amazon’s Seller Support Hub in Barcelona, it’s fifth in Europe, will be a multilingual center providing telematics support for small and medium-sized companies that sell their products through the Marketplace program –the platform that allows companies to sell their products on Amazon to clients around the world– to help them increase sales internationally.

This will be the multinational corporation’s fourth large-scale investment in Catalonia, after its two logistics centers in Castellbisbal and El Prat de Llobregat, and its Prime Now quick delivery system, which has an urban distribution center in Barcelona. In El Prat de Llobregat, Amazon is building a macrocenter, which will begin operating in October, with 60,000 m² of space and 1,500 employees.

Sources inside Amazon have highlighted that Barcelona is the perfect place for their new hub, as it has a network of international professionals of renowned talent, who understand the technology, are well-trained and speak many languages, as well as having a network of SMEs, entrepreneurs and start-ups that is particularly dynamic and innovative. Barcelona was chosen over other cities that were also interested in hosting the center, including Milan, Madrid and Paris.

In this regard, the latest report from the Mobile World Capital (MWCB) highlights that one fifth of all digital business in Barcelona is e-commerce. So, as London is a benchmark in fintech and Tel Aviv in cybersecurity, Barcelona is now a global benchmark in the e-commerce sector.

 [03/21/2017]