AMVO: COVID-19’s Impact on E-commerce

The retail industry faces an important disjunctive as the current COVID-19 emergency unfolds. The health contingency opened up a new opportunity for every company that manages to integrate technology into its sales and delivery processes, mainly for first necessities but also for a number of other products. Physical stores now seek to adapt rapidly to the new online demand. 

In China, vegetable deliveries increased by 600 percent during the Lunar New Year period, according to Carrefour. This phenomenon also occurred in South Korea (700 percent in health and food products), Italy (101.5 percent) and Poland (160 percent in fast consumption goods). In Mexico, online sales are expected to rise as more COVID-19 cases are confirmed. Faced with such a forecast, online stores of various kinds have implemented offers on their sites to mobilize purchases.  

The digital economy is experiencing significant growth, there is greater activity and demand for online shopping as well as awareness of the available supply not only in food but also in educational training, medical care and financial services. Some of the stores that are providing these services are Amazon, Mercado Libre, eBay, Linio, Costco, HEB, Chedraui, Soriana, Jüsto, Rappi and Click. 

It is because of all this movement that the Mexican Online Sales Association (AMVO) encourages companies to take advantage of the best practices implemented in other regions that have faced or are facing an emergency scenario. It is the right time to review the omnichannel strategy, according to the association. Likewise, AMVO shares 20 recommendations for companies, clients and employees in Mexico that participate in e-commerce operations. 

The first recommendation for companies is the design of a recovery plan for a potential business collapse in the short term and guidance in long term preparations. AMVO recommends considering different levels of recovery depending on the sector in which the business operates, to calibrate its approach and, in the case of big companies, to calibrate by division without forgetting a recovery strategy depending on the location of the business.   

The association also urges companies to mobilize quickly to detect new needs and innovate with the same agility, since consumption habits change rapidly when different emergency scenarios are faced. There are new challenges that retailers are facing such as featuring the type of product that can be in greatest demand. The association recommends companies to have multiple suppliers, ensure they have the client’s correct address (since they will stop receiving packages in offices or workplaces), calculate new supply times, have the right packaging and promote digital payment methods.

AMVO concludes by emphasizing that it considers the current global emergency as an invaluable opportunity for ecommerce to take a decisive role as a facilitator of services and products, taking into account that in Mexico we are just in time to foresee possible risk scenarios and turn them into good breakpoints.