Coronavirus accelerated the E-Commerce ‘boom’

Trading over the Internet has become a 'lifesaver' so that companies do not end the pandemic with their numbers in red. While the movement of transactions in virtual stores grew in most Latin American countries, others did not hesitate to take a turn and rescue income.

It seems that the leaps and bounds that technology has taken in the last two decades paid off amidst the chaos. Between the proliferation of Covid-19 and the call to stay at home in the face of quarantine measures and curfews, E-Commerce has been a 'little' lifeline for small, medium and large companies in Latin America. In Chile, electronic transactions have been enhanced during the arrival of the Coronavirus in the week of February 24 to March 1, as reported in Tele13 by the director of Retail service of Nielsen, Diego Gizzi.

Social isolation did not prevent consumers from buying through their electronic devices; "That same week had 56 percent more sales than the same period in 2019, with 2,385 transactions corresponding to food," the firm said. In the first week that the coronavirus arrived to Chile, sales by this means increased by 41 percent, with 2,454 transfers, being 5 percent above the commercial movements during the 'Fiestas Patrias', 12 percent higher than 'Cyber Monday' and only 18 percent below Christmas.

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Using E-Commerce

Another economy that is benefiting by this means is Argentina, which has not had a good year with the numbers. Due to the quarantine and as a prevention against Coronavirus, 3 out of 10 people are new buyers on the web , this was revealed by the investigation of the Insights division of Kantar.

"73 percent (of new buyers) said they would do it again," said Sebastián Corzo, marketing & business Development Leader of the consulting firm. Virtual purchases in Argentina, according to the investigations, increased by 17 percent, from 44 to 61 percent, this as a measure to avoid going to physical businesses and thus prevent contagion.

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The 'Boom' of E-Commerce in Latin America is also experienced in Colombia, where electronic commerce grew up to 28 percent in Bogotá , compared to weeks prior to the arrival of the Coronavirus.

"Taking into account the economic impact that economic inactivity represents for the country (during the quarantine), we consider from the CCCE (Colombian Chamber of Electronic Commerce) that Internet sales can work as a tool to mitigate these impacts ", said Maria Fernanda Quiñones, executive president. In this way, and with the consolidation of 'Teleworking', technology lends a hand to trade in the face of a pandemic that has been unstopabble since its appearance in China and is now hitting Latin America.