Knowing with certainty the impact of e-commerce on traditional commerce in Uruguay is not possible at present. Neither the National Chamber of Commerce and Services (CNCS) nor the Chamber of Digital Economy of Uruguay (CEDU) have data that measure the performance of e-commerce at the local level. According to the president of CEDU, Marcelo Montado, his chamber is working to create this type of indicators from 2017.
From the CNCS have no way of quantifying whether or not e-commerce harms traditional trade but say that Uruguayans are increasingly inclined to use this new shopping channel.
Cyber Monday, which took place between June 20 and 22, was an example of the good moment of the online sales channel. In this instance, brands offered significant discounts through their e-commerce channel.
Between November 2015 and the last edition in June 2016, 125% more people logged on to the Cyber Monday website.
The truth is that four out of 10 Uruguayans were in contact with the Ciberlunes, action launched by CEDU, according to data from this chamber. In turn, this instance of virtual discounts doubled its visits compared to its previous edition in November 2015.
The time spent on the Cyber Monday site almost increased sixfold in this edition. Internet users spent an average of 20 minutes on the site.
The union of the two worlds
Mercadolibre is one of the star firms of Cyber Monday, which decided to extend its discounts from three days to a week.
"In those first three days, sales doubled compared to the usual days," said the country manager of Mercadolibre Uruguay, Karen Bruck.
Mercadolibre sold 35,000 products through its platform during those three days of discounts.
In general terms, the company is growing at a rate of 40% per semester and Bruck estimates that online shopping will continue to rise. "It has several added values: you can compare prices in real time and that in a context of pseudo-crisis is important, especially in high-cost products," he said.
At the same time, Bruck said that the cost reduction of not having to have a store to sell offers great benefits to companies that choose to put their official stores on Mercadolibre.
"Mercadolibre is the platform that has the most traffic by far, with 500,000 daily visits; now we are showing brands that Mercadolibre can be their most important branch," he concluded.
From the outside
According to data from the National Customs Directorate, in the first half of 2016, Uruguayans made about 805 online purchases abroad every day.
In relation to this, the head of the International Trade Department of the CNCS, Javier Peña Capobianco, assured that, according to the trend, this figure will continue to grow despite the restrictions of the Uruguayan Post Office (which allows four annual purchases of a maximum amount of US$200 each).
"The diversity that exists in the world does not exist here," said Capobianco. He also stressed that the low costs affect the purchase decision of Uruguayans".
Several sectors are lobbying to try to stop foreign purchases," said Peña, who considers that this attitude is tantamount to "covering the sun with a finger.
The big difference between the cost of the same product in Uruguay and that which comes from the United States or China - the main markets in which Uruguayans buy - lies in the payment of taxes that today falls only on domestic trade, recalled the executive of the CNCS.
Unfair competition
"E-commerce is the new world and we agree that all companies that can incorporate it, do so," said the economist of the Chamber of Commerce, Ana Laura Fernandez.
Fernandez said that the chamber is not against e-commerce but is critical about the decree 356/2014 of Customs that allows the entry of goods without payment of taxes.
"That is unfair competition because here if an importer wants to bring certain products has to comply with certain tax requirements that define the final price of the product," said the economist.
More downturn than slowdown
Outside the virtual world, the latest quarterly survey of the National Chamber of Commerce and Services shows a lower level of trade activity whose decline began in 2014 and, according to Fernandez, will continue to accentuate.
"All but one of the sectors we surveyed have shown a drop in sales. We no longer speak of slowdown, we speak of fall," said the economist.
Fernandez explained that supermarkets function as a snapshot that shows what happens in the general trade and today recorded a 2% drop in sales in the first quarter of the year in Montevideo.
Source: The Observer
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