Malls if reinvent retail online in advance with Brazil

SAO PAULO-the evolution of e-commerce in Brazil is happening more slowly than in other developed market as United States and China, but it challenges the companies that operate in the retail segment the redesign operations to adapt to changes in the consumer behavior. In recent years, operators of shopping malls came anticipating the ecommerce movement in the country, by improving the range of services and entertainment options, as well as seek alternatives to parking revenue loss. " The Brazil even quit in front in this regard. The impact of ecommerce will be felt, but to a lesser degree than in the United States, "said Reuters BTG Pactual, analyst Gustavo Cambauva. According to the President of the Brazilian Association of Shopping centres (Abrasce), Glauco Humai, malls in Brazil are more than shopping center and do not necessarily need to compete with e-commerce. Instead, he bet that the sector can take a central role in the development of e-commerce in the country, which is still coming up in matters of logistics infrastructure. "What makes our malls a jewel is the location ... They would be perfect distribution centers, "said Humai. One of the consequences of the change of consumer habits toward online shopping and proliferation of transport applications as Uber is the indentation in the activity of the parking lots of malls, one of the sources of income of the enterprises. Multiplan has found growth of 12% on their parking revenue malls in 2015, says retreated to 0,5% drop last year. In Iguatemi, rival went from 18% to high expansion of 4% in the same period. I've seen 11% expansion BRMalls pass for only 0,6%. " At worst we converted part of our 570 malls in distribution centers, "commented the President of Abrasce referring to number of current developments in Brazil. The strategy of looking at the malls as product distribution centers mirrors of large retail chains such as Via retail, you're building mini warehouses in physical stores to speed up delivery times for goods bought over the Internet. This occurs at a time when the sector strives to integrate the online and offline channels, while the competition causes with a possibly more intense American giant Amazon in the Brazilian market. At the beginning of the year, Reuters reported that Amazon was meeting with local suppliers of electronic items, perfumes and other products, in addition to negotiating the lease of a shed in Cajamar and an agreement with the airline blue for delivery of goods. " If an Amazon or an Alibaba can negotiate that our shopping malls are the distribution centers for them, "said Humai. One of the first shopping centers to companies venturing into ecommerce was BRMalls, which three years ago introduced a pilot project in your Shopping Metrô Santa Cruz, in São Paulo, for delivery to restaurants in the food court. " We set up a delivery Center that was the bridge between generator and food stores. The business started to go over too well and we realized it had potential, "said the Chief Operating Officer of BRMalls, Vicente Avellar. In May 14, the company announced no major investment in open platform Delivery Center to develop the so-called" ship from mall ", a delivery model that will use malls as distribution centers. The plan is that the 40 enterprises of BRMalls are integrated to the platform until the end of 2019. The partnership is not exclusive and the project was implemented at the beginning of July at the Shopping Tijuca, in Rio de Janeiro, initially with food. In addition, other two independent malls and a commercial building converted for Delivery Center are in operation. " Just in the first three months of operation we got an increase of sales of 15% food court ", said the President of Delivery Center, Andreas Blazoudakis, who is also co-founder of applications for mobile devices Movile.De According to Blazoudakis, beyond the BRMalls, Delivery Center still negotiates partnerships with other networks of shopping malls. "Fit two or three as shareholders," said the Executive. Still, another company interested in joining the ecommerce is the Multiplan, which plans to launch by the end of this year an experimental version of an online sales channel, the MultiShopping. " Will begin in BarraShopping (Rio de Janeiro) and then we're adding new shopping malls over time. The idea is to bring the mall to a client's House, "explained the Director Vice President Finance and investor relations of Multiplan, Armando d'Almeida Neto, also sought by Reuters, the Iguatemi said" is always open to new opportunities to business ", but did not inform if was developing or studying initiatives for e-commerce.