Stores have started to reopen after the social distance measures, but customers are returning to shopping slowly. The perception among executives in the commerce sector is that new consumers of different age and income groups have joined the ease of buying over the internet - and digital sales are expected to reach higher levels than pre-Covid.
Retailers recorded a loss of 36% in revenue during the pandemic, and the drop was not only more profound due to the performance of e-commerce, evaluate experts in the segment. Data released this Wednesday (22) by Neotrust / Compre & Confie, a market intelligence company, reflects this consumer movement.
Between April and June, months of peak social distancing, 5.7 million customers made their first purchase over the internet. This is significantly higher than in the second quarter of 2019 when 4.3 million joined digital commerce.
Although face-to-face sales are slowly returning, companies like Magazine Luiza, Via Varejo, Carrefour, and even Renner, are projecting that these consumers will use e-commerce more than before.
Experts estimate that e-commerce grew about 45% per month during the pandemic. According to Cielo, whose retail index monitors debit and credit card transactions, in March, online sales rose 0.4% compared to February - the last month without social restriction measures.
Comparing unemployment in mid-July with the same February, online sales registered an increase of 41.5%.
The general data is still disheartening. Cielo shows a 15% drop in retail revenue in the pandemic, but as the retraction was more than double, the breath towards recovery, with a reduction in losses, is considered positive.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon