Natalia Muscatelli
07/28/2021 17:27
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 07/28/2021 5:27 PM
As stores reopened and restrictions on circulation were eased,
online sales of clothing and footwear began to decline in the last three months.
According to a private survey, 57% of people bought a product online in this period, versus 61% who did so at the end of 2020 and 69% who did so during the ASPO period (Sep 2020).
Although the decline was slight, it turned on
yellow lights
among traders who bet heavily on a trend that exploded in the pandemic and promised to stay.
The dive into user behavior was done by the market research consultancy Opinaia, at the request of the firm Glamit, in charge of providing technological solutions to the main brands in the country and the region.
It manages more than 50 e-Commerce from different industries and some of the brands it works with are
Mimo, Rapsodia, Levi's, Grisino, Caro Cuore, Kosiuko, Babycottons, Fila, Vitamina, Uma, Ayres, Wanama, Bensimon, Clara, Tucci, Indiastyle, Sweet, Gama Italy, Swarovski, Forever 21, La Cardeuse and Pandora,
among others.
The first explanation for the recent decline in sales is that many people who had bought these fashionable products between October and December of last year, did not do so again in recent months.
But it is also clear that
users are more demanding when evaluating the performance of brands and sales platforms.
On this point
,
Paola Cavarozzi, Director of Research of Opinaia, says: "The buyer was very demanding and has higher standards from experiences with different platforms. Nowadays,
what he values the most is the immediacy of delivery ”.
Others add that
trying clothing and footwear is another factor that affects the return to face-to-face shopping.
In this sense, when asked what they would like to improve in the experience, 61% of consumers would like
shipping costs to drop, 44% ask for more attractive offers, 34% mention the improvement in delivery times and the 26% forms of payment.
Cavarozzi adds that: “the buyer still considers that online purchases
should have lower prices.
Expect promotions and better prices than purchases in physical stores ”.
Meanwhile Luciano Margolin, director of Glamit, points out that “consumers need
an improvement in terms of processes and times related to exchanges and returns
.
Although it has improved a lot in this regard, there are still opportunities for optimization ”.
And he adds: "Customers require that we continue to work on the
mobile shopping
experience
, where currently the conversion percentages are still considerably lower
than in visits made through computers."
From the research on fashion sales through e-commerce, it was also detected that
costs, delivery times and payment methods are the aspects that
brands
must improve
the
most
to continue attracting buyers.
Among other points, the survey also showed the behavior of sales according to socio-economic levels: in the high segment it was observed that 73% continued to buy online, in the middle the number reached 67% and in the low segment, 47 %, that is to say that
this decrease perceived in the average is mainly the result of the decrease in the purchase levels of the lowest segments,
which have fewer resources.
According to data from the Chamber of Electronic Commerce (CACE), 2020 was the year with the greatest boom in sales (total) with a growth of 124% compared to the previous year
.
The turnover climbed to $ 905,143 million from the sale of 251 million products.
According to this source,
sports apparel and goods, non-sports apparel, and food and beverages
were the most popular categories since the pandemic began.
The latter, for example, climbed seven positions in the ranking.
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The pandemic changed online shopping: food, furniture and toys are the categories that grew the most