E-commerce in Rio de Janeiro is growing above the average for the Southeast region, according to NielsenIQ EBIT

One of the proposals E-commerce Brazil is to foster high-level technical knowledge focused on e-commerce for Brazilian merchants. With the aim of spreading this knowledge, regional events have appeared, the content of which is focused on the peculiarities of some Brazilian states.

During the Brazilian e-commerce conference in Rio de Janeiro – a meeting of leaders, Marcelo Osanaie-commerce manager at Nielsen IQ EBIThe talked about the main trends and opportunities for online sales for Rio de Janeiro compared to the scenario in the country.

Own experience

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have adopted a more minimalist style of consuming less,” explained the CEO, who has decided to reduce purchases to necessities in 2020 and 2021.

However, with the resumption of social life in 2022, there was a desire to redesign the style and wardrobe, which caused both the speaker and many Brazilians to return to the stores. Despite working with the e-commerce universe, Osanai was afraid to buy clothes online, precisely because of the stigma of not having them available to try on. It ended up being online shopping as many brands have improved their strategies since 2020 to provide different offers and a more fluid digital experience.

Niche stores, department stores, and even flea markets made Osanai’s favorite lists, showing that both large and small fashion retailers have managed to embrace a positive experience by eliminating barriers, among themselves, distance. This is because each of the stores Osanai consumed delivers from a different point in Brazil, with specific logistics structures: “e-commerce removes geographical barriers”, defends the executive.

Data on e-commerce in Brazil

According to data from 46. ​​Webshoppere-commerce in Brazil reached a figure of 118.6 billion in sales in the first half of 2022, a growth of 6% compared to the previous semester.

According to Osanai, the less pronounced growth in the first half of the year does not mean a reduction or withdrawal of e-commerce, but a greater stability of the sector after a very strong growth, in addition to the fact that it is at the time of channel consolidation, with a greater maturity of the sector.

“In addition, we have to consider the economic and social scenario in Brazil,” concludes the executive.

In this first half of the year, the peak of the sector refers to the months from January to March, which showed strong growth, followed by a slight retreat between April and May.

In terms of the number of consumers, from 2021 onwards, e-commerce has won 48.8 million new consumers, which is an increase of 18%.

Osanai celebrates the growth, but stresses the importance of bringing more consumers into the digital universe: “the purpose of e-commerce is not to make people buy more, but to reach as many people as possible”.

The new reality of sales

Along with constant changes, shopping behavior in e-commerce is also gradually changing. Research conducted by Nielsen shows that most online sales occur during weekdays (especially Tuesday through Saturday).

After the pandemic, many consumers began to mix physical purchases with digital purchases: “today the consumer is bombarded with options, e-commerce is only one of them, therefore the implementation of e-commerce must be rigorous”.

Another important factor for the first half of 2022 is that consumers are more conscious of spending and keep more money in their pockets, which has led to a decrease in the average fare. The variety of product catalogs available online also explains why the average purchase is cheaper, as many categories also have cheaper products.

Categories

One of the most important data observed was the Food and Beverage category, which grew significantly during the pandemic and continues to show importance for digital. In addition to investment, the category has high turnover and constant demand.

On the other hand, more traditional categories, such as electronics and home appliances, had more modest growth, given that their average ticket is higher and they are already well-selling markets, with less room for growth in times of inflation. Despite this, devices and telephony are the two categories that concentrate the most sales in e-commerce.

Data from Webshoppers shows that high-traffic categories, not always traditional, have shown sales growth.

free delivery

For Osanai, free shipping is a game-changer in e-commerce, with the function of enabling more people to spend and encouraging consumers who need an incentive to complete their purchases.

Again, the emphasis is on Food and Beverage, which had the largest increase in free delivery offers compared to last year. In the first half of 2022, industry sales with free shipping on e-commerce reached 72%.

It is not always possible to offer free shipping, but the data shows that there is a decline in the value of paid compared to the same period in 2021, which may mean greater maturity of retailers and improvement of logistics structures.

mobile

As incredible as it may seem, there has been a pullback in mobile sales, but it is important to look at each category separately, as there may be differences according to consumers in each segment or the usability of websites and applications.

Profile of new consumers

“E-commerce is not only a channel for the middle and upper class, it reaches more and more audiences and different ages,” defends Osanai. Among the factors that influence the breadth of consumer profiles in e-commerce is the expansion of more accessible ways of shopping, as well as a greater number of available products.

Another important point to make is that there is an increase in sales to the elderly, which was previously separate from online sales.

The southeastern region and the highlight of Rio de Janeiro

When analyzing the regions according to the number of sales, Sudeste is still the most important, but also the one that is growing the least, as it concentrates 61% of Brazilian e-commerce consumption.

However, the executive explains that “in e-commerce there is no single photo” and that even within a region there are several peculiarities that distinguish one country from another.

Although the region’s growth was only 1% in the half-year, several categories showed significant growth that segmented this increase in a very expressive way for retailers. In addition, the state of Rio de Janeiro grew by 7% (R$15.3 billion in sales) compared to 1% in the Southeast region.

The increase in the number of sales was accompanied by an increase in the number of orders: 26.1 million orders, which is an increase of 13%.

Unlike what was observed in Brazil as a whole, the country showed an interesting continuation of online sales from June onwards, with sales and value growing.

Even in Rio, the most important categories are still appliances and telephony, but Perfumery was the one that had the greatest growth in that period. Osanai justifies this with the value and turnover of the product.

The World Cup and Black Friday

Finally, we asked the speaker what advice he could give to retailers in the region considering the approach of the World Cup, which will coincide with Black Friday sales. For him, however great the challenge, the combination of events represents a unique sales opportunity for digital, precisely because it generates a very specific opportunity for consumption.

“It requires specific and strategic execution, but it can generate expressive results for e-commerce,” he concludes.

See all the research data presented at the lecture.