What was almost a recreation of the technological elite and applied to a handful of very specific services, but the pandemic accelerated a process that had been going on for almost a decade. Electronic commerce served as a lifeline for many companies and forcefully modernized the logistics distribution system.
For Ximena Diaz Alarcondirector of youuniversal and According to the investigations that they have been carrying out, e-commerce was left as a complementary and growing role in purchases after the pandemic. “It is clearly seen is the value of a good user experience (UX), mixing the purchase with content (for example, the use of Tik-tok in Shopify) and the other leg is the logistics to deliver in a timely manner, in addition to a more neutral environmental impact”, he explains. In short, good navigation, finding what you want and when you want it, without generating “environmental guilt”. The inflationary context and great uncertainty, relocated e-commerce in the role of a shop window, in which the consumer seeks to validate prices or confirm purchase options (with Mercado Libre as a great gateway).
The data. In the first half of 2018, 34.1 million purchase orders were processed, while in the same period this year there were 91.2 million, which represents an average annual growth of 28%.. Of course, there is the big jump that occurred during the pandemic: it rose 47% from the first half of 2021 to 2020. These data come from a study that the Argentine Chamber of Electronic Commerce (CACE) commissioned the consultant KANTAR that has been x-raying this market since 2018. Gustavo SambucettiInstitutional director of the entity, is entering its period of high work season: the so-called cyber monday (which actually lasts almost a week) is one of the two events scheduled by said chamber (the other is the “Hot sale”, in May) to promote sales through the online channel. The chamber is made up of 2,000 companies of all kinds and this initiative has been in force for ten years. 1,000 companies participate and in some cases, in this week they sell a month’s worth in the rest of the year. “There was a bit of everything in this decade, but as a trend, electronic commerce was migrating from the purchase of expensive or sumptuous goods to more common ones, as the consumer matured and learned more about this event.“, Explain.
To make the “Cyber Monday” offers transparent, Sambucetti details that they monitor so that there are no inflated prices or other maneuvers that affect the rest of the sector. “There is a previous analysis work to see how much the offers are worth and an audit to understand and check if they comply with the rule of not changing the base prices during the event.”, he adds.
Some companies also carried out more focused initiatives in some segments to generate additional sales, essential in a stagnant market like Argentina. It is not for less: some products are already selling much more in the online channel than in person. Audiovisual content and software top the list with 93% of transactions made through this channel, followed closely by tourism (87%), ticket sales for shows (82%) and other cases that attract attention, such as education services (70%), office supplies (58%) and pet supplies (58%). The KANTAR study shows that 91% of Argentines have bought online at some point, but only 5% did so for the first time this year. And the option of home delivery was the one that grew the most: from 39% in 2020 to 67% in 2022.
at home Precisely, the weakest link in the chain is logistics: a good platform and a product with a bargain price are useless if the physical product does not arrive in a timely manner. John Altamirano is the co-founder and current Global Director of clickoha logistics company created in Córdoba and with a presence in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Uruguay, which does not have its own distribution fleet, but rather works through alliances with local operators. It provides an “end-to-end” solution “so that e-commerce doesn’t worry about it through our ‘partners’ in storage services, last-mile delivery; managing deposits and deliveries”, he comments.
Altamirano recalls that when the pandemic started, it was a great challenge for the sector to catch up, but they were pushed towards efficiency and immediate response. “It is key that the buyer can get hold of his product as soon as possible so that he does it again more often,” he clarifies. He believes that this trend is just beginning and there are solutions that are under development, such as all the logistics made available for “reverse conversion”: being able to easily return a product if it is not what was offered within a reasonable period of time.
Finally, the other pillar is the cost of shipping, which is increasingly relevant when electronic commerce expands to products with a lower unit value, which generates the appearance of a whole system of “pick-up points”, improvements in the distribution of “ last mile” and online monitoring through technological solutions.
Electronic commerce is the future, but for a type of transaction. For more and more, it is already the present.
