E-commerce in Uruguay continues to grow in 2021 -study

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The study analyzes the behavior of e-commerce in Uruguay in the pre-pandemic period, the first months of the pandemic and the current situation, taking the transactions made through the platform as a reference they increased 280% between 2019 and 2021.

“All data presented in this report show a very strong retail commitment in terms of attention, investment, dedication, dreams and mistakes from which those managing this channel should have learned,” said Fenicio co-founding partner Leonado Álvarez, who presented the report alongside Conversion center leader Antonio Todino and sociologist Juan Manuel Bertón.

Among the main outstanding features of users who made online transactions, 79% of buyers are women while 16% are men. However, the latter spend 50% more per transaction.

“Women between the ages of 25 and 45 are Uruguay’s buyer audience. It is a segment in charge of many of the household purchases, even for men, and this leads to them accounting for a large share of purchases on the platform,” Todino explained.

As for the time to make transactions, the period from noon to 5 PM during working days is the preferred time of day for users. Sixty-one percent choose home delivery, mainly in the interior of the country. In addition, 84% of users prefer online payment while 16% still choose collection systems.

Regarding financing methods, half of purchases made online by Fenicio customers were paid by debit card or in a single installment, while only 5% of shoppers chose more than 6 installments.

With respect to the relationship between mobility and online purchases, Juan Manuel Bertón said that despite increased population mobility as a result of the drop in Covid-19 cases, online transactions continued to grow, which suggests that these sales are consolidating beyond exceptional circumstances such as the pandemic.

Finally, the report shows that most purchases are made in Montevideo (56%), Canelones (13%) and then Maldonado and Colonia (4% and 3%, respectively) departments. The remaining are divided among the other 15 departments of the country.

With information from El Observador