Commerce

Internet sales have soared in recent months, resulting in growth in the ecommerce sector. But if new purchasing habits are to truly take root and survive in the post COVID-19 reality, businesses will have to carefully nurture the customer buying experience. Against this backdrop, artificial intelligence (AI) is not only a tool to help improve the user experience and increase customer satisfaction, it can also facilitate payment management and detect potential fraud.

The bank takes its first steps working with Amazon’s e-commerce platform. This initial foray, using products from the renowned Spanish restaurant El Celler de Can Roca, will be used as a learning experience to enhance the bank’s digital sales in the short term.

BBVA USA, in its continued commitment to creating opportunities for the area’s business landscape, announced today that it has added five veteran bankers to its Houston Commercial Emerging Companies team.

Antonio Macías (Madrid,1973) is Head of Payment Methods, Digital Transformation at BBVA Spain. Previously, he has been Head of Payment Method Strategy and Transformation.

Nowadays, a small business, in addition to offering a quality product, needs to have at its disposal the best solutions for the day-to-day. The department led by Antonio Macías works to offer solutions that enable businesses to adapt to consumers who have evolved in the way that they come into contact with a business and in the way they pay for their purchases.

Amid the apparent decline of physical shops, new technologies are offering new opportunities to future consumers who will continue to visit stores, but with the help of artificial intelligence on their smartphones.

BBVA has today launched an innovative new global payments system that includes cards, alternative payment forms and a fraud-prevention tool.

“Social commerce”–on line sales driven by social networks–is growing 24% annually and already accounts for 6.5 billion dollars. For branding purposes, it is fundamental to understand the specifics of each network.

BBVA develops the infrastructure to allow El Corte Inglés to process Alipay mobile payments by Chinese tourists. Alipay is one of the most popular payment platforms in China.

José Manuel González-Páramo, BBVA’s Executive Director Responsible for Global Economics, Regulation & Public Affairs, will chair the recently created Spain-Peru Council Foundation, a non-profit body set up with the aim of fostering relations between the two countries.

Contactless technology enables users to make card payments through near-field communication (NFC). Adoption of this technology has grown exponentially in recent years, thanks to the benefits it offers both consumers and stores.

These new technological tools have the potential to improve all kinds of economic exchanges and open the door to new ways of doing business that today are unimaginable.

After seven years of negotiations, the Canada-Europe Trade Agreement, CETA, has entered into force provisionally.  Under this bilateral agreement, the most ambitious signed to date by Brussels, most custom duties levied on trade flows between both countries will be scrapped.

The recent elections in Germany have ended this year’s electoral cycle in Europe. With euroscepticism weighing in at the ballot box, it’s now up to the European Union to bring its institutions closer to the continent’s citizens, according to José Manuel González-Paramo, Executive Director of BBVA, speaking at a conference on “The New Europe: Challenges and Opportunities” organized by ADEIT.

The R3 consortium is working with 12 financial institutions –including BBVA– and TradeIX in an initiative that aims to re-design the trade finance infrastructure through the use of distributed ledger technology, or DLT.

BBVA launches Urban Discovery, an interactive tool open to everyone that analyzes the cities of Madrid, Barcelona and Mexico City through the prism of their commercial activity. The analysis led to the creation of new maps that redraw urban borders and identify the most touristic and residential areas or those where young people go shopping.

Madrid tourists spend more near monuments and museums than those in Barcelona. People living in Vila de Gràcia in Barcelona have the same lifestyle as those in the Madrid neighborhood of Malasaña. Sant Antoni and Poble Sec are places that are popular to go out to dinner and then for a drink, and in Madrid, the Lavapies neighborhood is undergoing a transformation toward more cultural activity.

BBVA is one of 11 banking institutions that are collaborating on the development of the Voltron project, a platform based on DLT (distributed ledger technology) that puts exporters and importers in contact, in order to improve efficiency in trade finance.

Mexico´s medium —and long— term perspectives are favorable, given the possibility of an improved NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and recent, profound structural reforms that are beginning to bear fruit.

The Pacific Alliance, made up of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, is a regional economic and comercial powerhouse.  This area grows more than the average in Latin America. BBVA Research expects GDP growth of 1.6% and 2.3% in 2017 and 2018, respectively.  "The Pacific Alliance is a success story in integration.  And not by chance.  It shares an ambition and a set of values behind this policy, on how prosperity should be reached," said Jose Manuel González-Páramo, executive director of BBVA in Santander.

This is the message the G20 wanted to transmit at the end of the summit that took place last weekend in Hamburg, Germany. However, it does not seem that this actually reflects the tone among the heads of state. The main point of disagreement was around the U.S. position on climate change.  They agreed on issues related to opening markets, international trade and the stability of the financial system.

In 2018, Argentine will preside over the G20, the forum representing the 20 largest economies in the world.  In the lead-up to its presidency, Argentina’s priorities are very much present this week at the Euroamerica Foundation in Buenos Aires.  BBVA Executive Director José Manuel González-Páramo will participate in the meeting.

Millennials and centennials, or Generation Z, will be the world’s largest demographic by the year 2020. Online shopping and reviews from other users impact the way they consume. Brands are watching the Centennials closely, to learn how to speak their language and win over the consumers of future.

Latin America is not very keen on, or good at saving, says a new publication by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The solution would be to promote financial education and build a culture based on improving saving habits among Latin Americans.

Success in sales almost always comes down to communication. And in the competitive ecommerce universe, content marketing is the best way to engage with those browsing through the store.

Chicfy, a women’s second-hand clothing digital marketplace, is one of the most unlikely success stories of the sharing economy in Spain. Behind the startup’s rise to fame is the one of a kind personality of an entrepreneur, Nono Ruiz, who thinks differently about business.

The U.K. is convinced that London will continue to be Europe's fintech capital and a global financial center after Brexit. But other European capitals are hoping to take its place. It will all depend on the long negotiation about to begin between the EU and the U.K.

46 years ago, in 1971, a group of business leaders reunited under the patronage of the European Comission and some industrial associations. The economist Klaus Schwab chaired the first meeting, with 440 attendants from more than 30 countries in Davos, Switzerland. In this reunion, the European Economic Forum was founded as a non-profit organization with its headquarters in Geneva.

Ever since then, thousands of political and business leaders, artists and enterpreneurs have met in the anual Davos-Kloster meeting. The following 15 milestones are only some of the main events that have marked the history of the World Economic Forum.

BBVA Executive Director José Manuel González-Páramo has been elected to serve a two-year term as European Chair of the TransAtlantic Business Council (TABC), the only official consultation body on transatlantic relationships recognized by the governments of the United States of America and the European Union.

In the last five years, Paraguay’s economy grew at an annual average rate of around 5% - one of the highest in the region. This economic performance is especially remarkable considering it occurred in a rather volatile international environment, characterized by turbulent international financial markets, lower capital inflows to emerging economies and falling prices for metals and agricultural products. The Paraguayan economy was also affected by declining activity of some the region’s most significant trade partners.

The day after Thanksgiving, or the last Friday of November, is celebrated nearly all over the world as Black Friday, the day that marks the first day of Christmas shopping. Over the years, with the arrival of new technologies, sales have been extended to Monday, known as Cyber Monday when discounts are offered for online shoppers.