Retail Sector Grows in Revenue, Investment

From a reduction in face-to-face sales to the Buen Fin, there have been radical changes in the results and opportunities related to the retail sector. ANTAD’s latest report announced that in November, there was an increase in revenues and a rise in investments in retail-related areas.

A previous MBN article mentioned that in a statement by ANTAD, the association did not expect self-service and department stores to recover their pre-COVID 19 levels before 2022. It was also mentioned that e-commerce had absorbed some of the lost sales in the retail sector, according to Agustín Gutiérrez, Partner at Mckinsey & Company. While this remains true, there was a rise in revenues among retailers in November. According to the data released by ANTAD, companies with more than a year in the market saw an increase of 2.6 percent in sales against November 2019. Businesses with less than 12 months of operation saw growth of 5.2 percent against November 2019. Accumulated sales between January and November 2020 from ANTAD members amounted to MX$1.15 billion (US$57 million).

Growing numbers could be a consequence of Mexico taking steps toward a new normality. At the moment, most states remain in orange, according to the Ministry of Health’s traffic light system to trace contagion and hospital occupancy rates, allowing businesses to remain open, reports MBN. Sales have also picked up as retailers improve their e-commerce game. Companies are starting to invest more in automating online shops, logistics and areas that have to do with food service, reports Retailers.

In a study named "Intelligrated Automation Investment 2020," Honeywell released information that points toward large technological investments for the next five years due to the uncertainty generated by COVID-19. Sectors that will likely receive large investment are e-commerce (66 percent), food industry (59 percent) and logistics (55 percent). Within these industries, it is foreseen that investment will go towards warehouse execution software (46 percent), order picking technology (46 percent), and robotic solutions (44 percent). "Since the pandemic, online shopping has grown 28 percent globally and it is expected that by the end of 2020, e-commerce and pick-up services will have increased 60 percent," said Thiago Zambotti, Vice President and General Manager of Honeywell in the report. Another area that has been taking more and more into consideration, as mentioned in a previous MBN article, is cybersecurity, as digitalization brings many advantages but also new threats and issues that did not worry companies much before.