E-commerce closes first semester with revenues of R $26.4 billion

After growing 12%, earning about R $26.4 billion only in the first half of 2019 over the previous year, the Brazilian e-commerce now already works with the ever-increasing entry of new consumers. The large assortment of products and express deliveries are helping to drive growth more homogeneously throughout the country. "We can verify an important growth in the breadth of categories within the online operations in recent years. For example, nothing prevents an e-commerce of clothing from starting to sell wines as well. From the moment that makes sense to your consumer that proposal, the initiatives are valid ", argued the commercial director of the data analysis company Ebit/Nielsen, Ana Helena Szasz, highlighting that there was the entry of 5.3 million new Consumers made their first purchase on the Internet in the first half of 2019. According to the company's survey, there was a 7% increase in the number of consumers in the interannual comparison – reaching a total of 29.4 million users. Of this amount, about 18% made the purchase for the first time in life in the first half of this year. For Ana Helena, this scenario indicates a greater maturity on the part of both Brazilian consumers and retail networks in betting online channels as a business tool. "We believe that this positive scenario has more to do with a virtual universe migration and discovery than it does with macroeconomic issues. We can see this with a wider range of products in segments and services for entertainment, tourism, durable goods, non-durable goods and food, "explained the executive. According to it, another important point to be mentioned in this process of maturing Brazilian e-commerce is the realization of partnerships between retailers and logistics companies. "The amount of services that arise to help these businesses in the delivery stages of the products is increasingly more frequent. Before, there was the conception that the partner could ' steal ' the client. But today, this idea has changed and it is important for the retailer to ask for help in these logistical processes, "she said. According to the figures disclosed by Ebit/Nielsen, in the geographic sphere, e-commerce also presents gradual evolution and maturity. In the first half of 2019 about a year earlier, the regions that registered the highest in sales volume were the north (36%), South (29%), Southeast (9%), Midwest (4%) and northeast (2%). In this sense, the study points to a slight decentralization of this market in the southeast, which lost 1.6 percentage point in the participation of national e-commerce revenues – reaching 56.6%. The prospect of revenue growth by the end of 2019 still remains at 21%, the equivalent of R $59.8 billion in the period. "There was a conception that the performance of online platforms in more remote regions was not feasible because of the logistics of product delivery. Regional solutions focused on this specific service have helped in the growth of other regions, "she added, remembering that 25% of the new virtual consumers used the mobile phone to make the first purchase. In this sense, the survey reveals that the advancement of virtual purchases made through mobile phones came from 32%, in the first half of 2018, to 42% in the same period this year. In relation to the average ticket, there was an increment of 8 percentage points – reaching R $353 on the same basis of comparison. Finally, social networks also show relevance at the time of decision to purchase users. According to the research, 80% of users who choose to acquire some item on the Internet were influenced by social interaction platforms. "If we go back in time, the buying motivator was to compare price. What changes here is the importance of activating campaigns on these platforms. However, it is essential that the retailer is programmed to target the public and reach these people correctly, because the effect may be contrary to this, "she said.