2024-03-26 19:10:38
Microbusinesses and SMEs can boost their reach and sales by taking advantage of the growth of e-commerce
If you only have a physical location, the reach is reduced to the people who pass in front of that location; but through e-commerceand if the business is registered on the buying and selling platforms, products can be offered nationwide.
In the country there are offers such as Mercado Libre, which has been present for just a couple of years, where you can save logistics and marketing costsamong others, and arrive with products in less than 48 hours throughout the country.
The potential of electronic commerce is great if you think about promoting microenterprises and SMEs.
E-commerce in Ecuador closed 2023 with more than $5,000 million in total sales. This represented $1,000 million more than in 2022 (20% growth). For 2024 and 2025, equal or greater growth is expected.
Roberto Mendoza, economist and e-commerce consultant, assures that digital sales are taking off in the country, belatedly, as a force that helps reduce costs, get closer to more customers and is even a very useful tool in the face of growing crime and unsafety.
E-commerce currently represents more than 30% of all sales in the retail segment worldwide..
In the United States, the percentage reaches 20%. In Chile, electronic commerce represents 15% of sales; In economies such as Colombia and Ecuador, the percentage fluctuates between 3% and 4%.
This means that, despite the recent increases, the room for growth is very large in economies like Ecuador’s.
Culture is the first obstacle
Generally, Latin Americans are distrustful, especially of a person who cannot see. Transacting through a web portal, where the counterparty is not seen, is still a challenge in the region and in Ecuador.
During the Catapultar program, from the Business School of the University of the Americas (UDLA), Philippe Fossaert, country manager of Mercado Libre in Ecuador, assured that The main challenge is to achieve the first purchase, generate trust and, from there, keep customers.
“More and more sellers, especially SMEs, publish with us. Our business model seeks to democratize electronic commerce. “Anyone can create an account, just by entering mercadolibre.com.ec,” she said.
The business model of this type of buying and selling platforms does not lie in charging for registration, but rather it earns the more sales generated by the people and businesses that upload their products.
The segment that can take advantage of this the most is precisely that of young entrepreneurs who are starting their working lives..
These entrepreneurs, in many cases, do not find a job in the labor market and have the option of launching their own business with little initial capital.
It must be taken into account that six out of every ten dollars for microcredits are given to women entrepreneurs.
More online transactions
According to a latest report from the Central Bank of Ecuador (BCE), the number of operations with electronic payment methods tripled between 2019 and 2023.
Furthermore, since 2011, Fintech solutions have increased 62% in the country. This growth facilitates the financial inclusion of a significant part of the population.
It is estimated that 25% more Ecuadorians now have access to financial services thanks to the emergence of new digital platforms.
In this context, the high potential of electronic commerce for Ecuadorian entrepreneurs becomes even clearer.
According to a Cambridge study, there are favorable factors driving the digital economy in Latin America and Ecuador: consumer demand (67%), the state of digital financial infrastructure (40%) and the availability of trained personnel (38%). %).
On the other hand, there are factors that hinder development such as: an unfavorable regulatory environment (54%), lack of financing (46%) and macroeconomic factors (41%). (J.S.)
Three rising trends in e-commerce
1.- More and more one is used combination of ways to approach customers. This includes not only Instagram, Facebook or Marketplace, but also WhatsApp and the buying and selling web platforms.
2.- Although it is still incipient in Ecuador, worldwide the use of videos or live shopping. This consists of Influencers who test a product live and sell it
3.- Today, through the video gamecan buy a variety of products such as caps, shoes, chairs, among others. That market is expanding.
How to increase your sales through platforms like Mercado Libre?
1 Use the catalog section. The first of Mercado Libre’s strategies to sell more focuses on “catalog” tool which will help you gain visibility.
Catalog listings are those that are associated with Marketplace inventory. This gives them more visibility and they appear higher in searches.
In addition, it provides good quality photos and a more detailed product description.
2 Optimize your positioning in the search engine. When users enter keywords into the search engine, posts are sorted on the results page by relevance. This relevance depends on factors such as reputation of the seller, price, geographic area in relation to the buyer, title and description of the product.
3 Write titles and complete descriptions. Ideally, the title alone can tell what exactly is being offered.
4 Take excellent photos of your products. To get their attention and generate the trust they need to make the purchase, it is essential upload high quality photos.
5 Study the trends. This is a tool of the platform itself and can help you discover new business ideas to make money. It consists of exploring the most popular searches in the available categories.
6 Improve response time. Another trick to sell on Mercado Libre is Be aware of notifications and answer questions that visitors leave in the publications. This will allow them to clear their doubts immediately and decide on the purchase.
7 Monitor the competition. Review how other advertisers advertise products in your niche, what information they include in descriptions, how they compose titles, and what types of questions people ask.
Source: Diario la HORA