Carmen Herrarte Promotes Competitiveness of Retail Trade with Digital Tools
At the IV Aragonese Congress of Commerce and Innovation, recently held, the General Director of Commerce, Fairs, and Crafts, Carmen Herrarte, urged small businesses to work together and adopt 21st-century technological tools to enhance their competitiveness in the market.
Herrarte emphasized the need to change the negative perception of commerce in the media, pointing out that Aragon is home to more than 11,000 open businesses, each representing a success story. She asserted that being a merchant is a vocation and now is the time to hold their heads high to compete with determination.
The general director warned about 95 billion in outflows to digital platforms and underscored that Spain has set records in spending diversion towards entities that do not generate local wealth or employment. Therefore, she advocated for the coordination of efforts among merchants as a fundamental strategy to counteract this trend.
The congress featured presentations by Dimas Gimeno (founder of Wow and former president of El Corte Inglés) and Félix Tena (owner of La Social and founder of Imaginarium), both sharing their business experiences. The Areas for Promotion of Economic Initiatives (BID) were discussed, with participation from Álvaro Costela (Liverpool One), Alejandro Aznar (Zaragoza Esencial), Rodolfo Pangua (Open Commercial Center of Teruel), Oriol Cesena, and Óscar Gracia.
María Jesús Gimeno, manager of Tourism in Aragon, presented results from a sensorization project that integrates data from the Aragon Tourist Intelligence System (SITAR) and the Volveremos program in Jaca. The study revealed that one in four customers of businesses is not a local resident, with higher concentrations during Holy Week and summer. Visitors spend between 35 and 50% more than residents, and municipalities with higher tourist influx record larger average tickets and inter-municipal mobility, demonstrating that tourism and commerce must go hand in hand.
