Despite the drop in trade this year, virtual sales grew 24.1%

The performance in the first quarter was good, there is more frequency in purchases. Credit and debit cards are the preferred means of payment.

Digital commerce is showing resistance despite the current economic cycle in Colombia and in the world, characterized by a slowdown in personal spending.

Between January and March, more than 87 million transactions were registered and sales reached $15 trillion, which translated into an increase of 24.1% compared to the same period in 2022, when inflation had not yet reached that 13% peak that triggered the cost of living in the country.

María Fernanda Quiñones, executive president of the Colombian Chamber of Electronic Commerce (CCCE), also noted that the average ticket, that is, the value of the purchase per user, stood at $177,531 and fell 0.9%.

“This is positive because the lower the ticket, it means that more goods are being bought and that they are common consumer goods, because that did not happen before the pandemic, when the main categories were high-spending such as tourism, fashion and technology, and they were also very episodic,” the executive explained.

Fight mistrust

Although the behavior of Internet purchases shows sustained growth, its adoption continues to be low if Colombia is compared with countries such as Argentina and Brazil.

One of the barriers that still hinders adoption is the distrust of the population towards non-face-to-face purchases.

According to a survey applied in partnership with the Centro Nacional de Consultoría (CNC), 30% of those consulted do not trust digital commerce; 11% doubt that the products that are going to arrive are the same as those that they ordered; and 7% mistrust logistics processes.

For this reason, the CCCE recently launched the e-Trust trust seal, which will be a certification that accredits the good practices of the companies involved in the chain of E-commerce.

"It is a self-regulation initiative, self-regulation consists of an industry studying its risks and defining a series of practical actions to ward off those risks and offer a level of confidence," Quiñones explained.

Understanding that digital commerce is not a channel, but rather a chain industry, the seal began to be structured three years ago to standardize the means of payment, logistics, and the response to the consumer (see X-ray).

With this, the CCCE hopes to give an additional boost to this sector and the goal is for their participation in total sales to increase, since they barely have a participation of 2%.

Regarding the prospects for the rest of the year, the president indicated that “electronic commerce will continue to grow (...), having downward inflation and the revaluation of the peso that has been taking place, can have a positive impact. We do not believe that there will be a decrease, but we must look at the contribution that electronic commerce will make to the country's economy”.

Article taken from elcolombiano.com

By: Juan Camilo Quiceno Ramírez

https://www.elcolombiano.com/negocios/ventas-del-comercio-electronico-crecieron-24-en-primer-trimestre-de-2023-DN21975978

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