How the pandemic changed online shopping habits in Ecuador and caused collaborative e-commerce projects to be born

One in three buyers used the online channel to make purchases for the first time, and purchase orders grew by 44%.

The coronavirus pandemic changed the lives of millions of people around the world, including in the commercial and consumer areas.

In the case of Ecuadorians, there was an exponential increase in consumption through digital media, reaching 2.3 billion dollars, 700 more than in 2019.

According to the Ecuadorian Chamber of Electronic Commerce (CECE), “with the presence of the pandemic in the country, many were forced to make their usual purchases through electronic transactions; For some this meant a new experience, while for others it translated as the increase in a previously acquired behavior.”

One in three buyers used the online channel to make purchases for the first time, and purchase orders through this channel also grew by 44%, compared to 2019.

The CECE indicates that not only Ecuador, but throughout the region the business grew what would have taken five years, mainly in food and hygiene, computing, household appliances, fashion and beauty, education, online payments, online games, pet food, delivery and cell phone.

They change the way of buying

The change is such that e-commerce went from being 7.4% of retail trade to 15%.

The company Spoonity, dedicated to digital loyalty programs, mentions that the customer became accustomed to ordering online and due to the need generated by the pandemic, systems were implemented to sell online, especially in retail-type companies, of which few had specialized channels.

It is also known that this digital consumer is made up of 61% women and 39% men. “While the age segment with the highest consumption was 26 to 45 years old (young professionals with purchasing power and accustomed to using technology). Only 0.38% correspond to people over 65 years of age, which also reflects a change in the lifestyle of this group," explains the firm, which adds that companies that had digital loyalty programs managed to get 70% of their members continue to prefer them and double their consumption.

In addition, many people have become more accustomed to home delivery (At the national level, the Ecuadorian Chamber of Electronic Commerce (CECE) indicated that food and hygiene, computing, appliances, fashion and beauty, education, payments) given the risks that the exposure had when going out to buy.

Payments, something important

One of the most important changes is the growth of trust towards online payments in the country.

Many businesses, from large to small, have had to implement or update their mobile applications, websites and use specialized payment platforms to accommodate transaction requests.

Taking into account the growing confidence in online payments, the Buco platform tries to organize different groups of businesses, public and private spaces, to create a kind of cooperative that allows sharing the expenses of all the technological needs to sell products.

Cooperative digital commerce

Andrés Morán, an expert in virtualization of digital strategies and platforms and one of the creators of Buco, indicates that this initiative is a form of methodological applicability of cooperative digital commerce that seeks business development by promoting cooperation between businesses.

He says that they won an award in Argentina in 2018 with the Ayapar project, and here in Ecuador they are already implementing the first phase of Buco for the Provincial Government of Manabí (Prefecture) and other surprises that could occur in the city of Quito.

“This methodology starts from a simple cost analysis. The implementation prices for a commercial or government e-commerce platform or for a large store or supermarket are exactly the same. The only thing that changes is the size of the inventory depending on the hosting assigned to it, which in this case is the weight of the information on the online website. That is the only difference at a technical level and based on that principle we appeal to associativity,” says Morán.

He adds that in the case of a business network with different points in a city - for example, all the markets in Quito - georeference can be used so that the order is made to the point (market) closest to the customer. Although there could also be the option of choosing the area, in case someone wants to make a purchase from abroad, but which is delivered in the Ecuadorian city.

For Morán, this can be used in city markets, shopping centers or product associations in rural areas, it can even eliminate intermediaries and lower prices.

The purchasing process would be to choose the business and/or the products and proceed to payment, which could be made on a payment platform through bank encryption with the different entities in the sector.

“The means of payment (online) are totally reliable in Ecuador,” says Morán, who calls on the public sector to think about these types of options to be able to reactivate businesses, thus avoiding interaction that could cause infections.

He adds that the rates for the service will depend on the conceptual theme. He gives an example that if the Quito market network, which groups around 35 thousand merchants, each merchant should more or less pay between 5 and 10 dollars a year.

Sector challenges

This year the challenge for e-commerce will be digital loyalty, boosting online sales with the appropriate channels.

Make this type of transaction attractive and differentiate itself from sales at physical points, as well as continue improving deliveries.

At the most advanced level, implement the necessary tools to optimize processes, subscription strategies and automated purchasing of recurring products.

Also, according to the CECE, it would be offering more online education, strengthening the public-private relationship, improving the scope of banking so that trust continues to increase and an ecosystem of formality is generated.

For all this, obviously, the access that the population has to technology must be improved, from devices to increasing bandwidth, something that would also be used for teleeducation and teleworking.