SMEs Successfully Join E-Commerce Strategy

The 'MSME Digitalization Plan' promoted by the Department of Economic Development of the OAS and the startup Kolau managed to get 100,516 SMEs to join e-commerce by creating a website for them for free in Mexico. Launched in March 2020, the plan has the goal to integrate 1 million Mexican SMEs into e-commerce, with an average of 100,000 per year, reaching 25 percent of businesses operating through e-commerce by 2030.

According to Kolau, 216 MSMEs have already opened their website in 529 cities in Mexico, making it the largest initiative for digitalization in the country. The industry with the highest percentage of MSMEs is the hotel and catering industry with 10.8 percent out of the total number of companies that have joined the program,  followed by textile companies and consultancy firms. 

Participating in the plan are 53 municipal governments, three state governments, 12 universities and five chambers of commerce. Among these are the city councils of Acapulco, Colima, Mexicali, Celaya and Iguala; universities including the Universidad de Celaya y Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero; as well as chambers of commerce like the National Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism of the Toluca Valley.

More news below:

• From 5G and hyper-personalization to streaming and IoT, this year will see new technologies and some will change your life, wrote Fernando Thompson, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of TBSEK this week for MBN. “Technology innovation each year surpasses the previous one and new models of computers, smartphones, home robots, 3D printers and all sorts of digital devices – like headsets, watches, bracelets, clothing – keep coming out,” he said. Read the full article here.

• In Mexico, 75 percent of people with debit cards use them only to withdraw money. It is not that people do not believe in banks. There are more than 70 million active debit cards in the country. But people do not, at the moment, have the kind of platform that allows them to easily spend their money, told MBN Leonardo Estrada, Co-Founder and CEO of Hola Cash, which enables both traditional and new banks to process transactions through a centralized platform. You can read the full conversation here.

• Data protection is becoming a priority for companies but a lack of maturity in strategy remains, wrote this week for MBN Claudio Martinelli, Managing Director of Kaspersky for Latin America. “The first step in adopting best practices for the protection of personal data begins with the evaluation of the processes related to the collection, handling and storage of this information. The second step relates to the analysis of the infrastructure to guarantee the integrity of the information,” he explains.

• In Mexico, six out of 10 internet users have flirted with someone they met online, revealed The Competitive Intelligence Unit (CIU). According to the report, 59 percent of those surveyed had a virtual flirt, being WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger the favourite platforms.

• This week, Uber Planet was launched. This new option within the ride-hailing app enables users to pay an extra 0.37 cents for each kilometre during the trip. These resources will be directed to carbon credits to support three conservation projects in the country, said the company in a statement. “At Uber, we are working and investing every day in products and innovations that contribute to a different mobility than the one we had before COVID-19,” added Uber’s General Manager in Mexico Gretta González.

• The restaurant industry was one of the most affected by the pandemic. In light of this, Mexican entrepreneur Kelvin Perera Arteaga made it his mission to create a digital platform to help restaurants do better business. Perera created Esent, an app that allows users to make reservations, order and pay for food before even arriving in the restaurant, reports MiBolsillo.