Win online marketplace options, but stumbles in consumer resistance

Online food sales, which for a long time was dominated by Grupo Pão de Açúcar, won new competitors. Although the sector represents only 2.4% of revenues from e-commerce in Brazil and, according to experts, there is a resistance to buying foods over the internet, networks such as Carrefour and startups like Home Refill believe that it is possible to turn the trend in coming years, with the behavior of Brazilian approaching of markets such as Japan and the United Kingdom, where filling the pantry using the web is already common.
The beginner in this category is the Carrefour, which debuted on the e-commerce feed this week, acting for the time being, in some neighborhoods of São Paulo. Overseas, retailers like Target and Wal-Mart use physical stores as gathering points for purchases made over the internet. Though consider this model for the future, the French retailer has chosen another path: created a distribution center for e-commerce, in the southern area of São Paulo.
According to Luiz Escobar, Director of Carrefour.com, the strategy aims to reduce "breaks" in the applications online. "If e-commerce depends on the stock in the store, the product may have been sold to another consumer at the time the team do the collecting," he explains.
The example of what makes the Pão de Açúcar group, your main competitor in Brazil, Carrefour took advantage to create a loyalty program which can also be run by an application.
Startup. Created in 2016, the startup Home Refill is intended to serve as a "stock regulator" of the cabinets of the inhabitants of the Brazilian metropolis. Unlike the large retailers, the company does not sell perishables. "Our focus are the products of continuous use, such as long life milk, diapers, detergents", explains the Manager of the company's management and finance, Vinicius Caesar. "We want to avoid that people occupy space with something they don't need."
Non-perishable products, delivery Home Refill only makes requests to industries after the consumer making the purchase. "Between the supplier and the delivery in a client's House, the deadline is 5 to 6 business days," says Caesar. From the second purchase, says, the trend is that the decrease, since the Home you want to deliver to customers always Refill the same list of products, with small variations. "Our goal is to make the consumer save money, as it will better manage inventory and buy only what you really use."
The Home has registered 100,000 – Refill them in areas where the service is not yet available. The company already serves the greater São Paulo and, until the end of the year, plans to expand to the coast and the interior, in cities like Sorocaba and Campinas. The startup is also testing your business model internationally – already has a pilot operation in Saudi Arabia and plans to come to South Africa and India.
Expansion. There are indications that there are opportunities for supermarkets online. Sugar Loaf, which operates in since 1995, had a high of 18% in its e-commerce sales in 2016 and has managed to draw other products to their online sales – an example is the signature wine club.
Despite the expansion of GPA in the segment, the food and beverage sector has not, today, an important presence in online commerce. "Consumers still don't have associated food sales to e-commerce. It's a difficult segment, which deals with perishables and has complicated logistics, "says Pedro Guasti, President of Ebit, consulting firm specializing in electronic commerce.
Compared to 2016, however, more Brazilians are choosing to change the shopping cart for mobile application. In a consulting report done in the past, neither appeared in the top 10. Now he's in ninth place.
The sector also showed significant increases around the world, according to Kantar Worldpanel: consumer. In 2016, China and South Korea were the countries that came to buy food on the web, with a high of 50% and 40%, respectively. In Europe, France and Britain grew by 8%.