Maintaining proper inventories to meet demand, having a robust logistics system and an electronic sales channel that protects your customers when they make a purchase, are part of the challenges that businesses face in this new reality.
With "Black Friday" and Christmas approaching, commercial establishments in the region are beginning to apply their sales and promotion strategies, with which they will try to recover part of their income.
Between July and October in El Salvador the number of consumers who were trying to purchase life insurance online increased by 45%, and the number of people looking to buy children's clothing decreased by 43%.
CentralAmericaData's interactive platform, Consumer Insights, monitors in real time changes in consumer habits in all markets in the region and in other Latin American countries, with fundamental information to understand their behavior, new trends and anticipate eventual changes in their purchase patterns.
Between July and October 2020 in Central America the number of people trying to buy home office furniture online increased 71%, and the number of consumers looking for car insurance policies grew by 8%.
CentralAmericaData's interactive platform, Consumer Insights, monitors in real time changes in consumer habits in all markets in the region and in other Latin American countries, with fundamental information to understand their behavior, new trends and anticipate eventual changes in their purchasing patterns.
With the accelerated arrival of the new commercial reality, consumers no longer divide the world between the physical and the digital, since now the purchasing processes are a constant succession that combines both aspects.
Due to the transformation of consumer habits that had been occurring since before the covid-19 crisis and that has now accelerated, companies are focusing on understanding how people decide on the purchases they make.
Merging E-commerce models and face-to-face sales, through the implementation of apps that allow shopping in a physical store without going through the checkout line or selecting a fitting room from a cell phone, are the challenges for companies in the new reality.
In order to adjust to the new demands and challenges that arose from the covid-19 outbreak, at a global level companies are focused on understanding the trends that will predominate among consumers in the short and medium term.
Starting in September, Hugo App will offer companies in the region an online store service, which will include a website, logistics, electronic invoicing and inventory management.
The new tool of the application of Salvadoran origin will be called Hugo Business, platform that will begin to operate from September 1st in Guatemala, and in the case of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Dominican Republic, will begin in October.
The Salvadoran government has launched a digital sales platform called Market SV, a store that will offer more than 2,000 products and distribute the goods through Correos de El Salvador.
The platform, which seeks to boost online sales for the country's small and medium-sized enterprises, is available on the site market.gob.sv and facilitates payment using credit cards.
The abrupt change in consumer habits forced companies to digitalize their operations and sales, but the challenges do not stop there, as companies will have to implement effective logistics systems to reach their customers.
The health crisis, quarantines and social distancing measures in Central American countries, forced individuals and companies to accelerate the adoption of new technologies, which caused the digital to become the center of all interactions.
In this scenario of covid-19 propagation, companies have had to migrate to the digital at great speed. The digitalization plans that companies were planning to implement in a period of 1 to 3 years are now being implemented in a few weeks, according to an analysis called "The Digital Agenda: Opportunities for the Service Sector", prepared by the Market Intelligence Unit of the Guatemalan Export Association (Agexport).
In Central America, nearly 3 million people are looking to purchase a beauty service or product online, and 31% of these consumers explore options for buying makeup and cosmetic items.
The interactive information system developed by CentralAmericaData, monitors in real time the changes in consumer habits in all markets of the region, with fundamental information to understand the new commercial environment that has emerged in an accelerated manner.
Among the people who look for products and services available online in Central America, 20% try to buy electronic devices such as cell phones, video game consoles or cameras, 17% home and garden items, and 10% vehicles.
The interactive information system developed by CentralAmericaData monitors in real time the changes in consumer habits in all markets in the region, with fundamental information to understand the new commercial environment that has emerged in an accelerated manner.
Considerable investments in the digitalization of operations, the closure of small stores and the expansion of the commercial area of the best located sales points, is part of the strategy that companies are beginning to implement in the new context of business transformation.
Managers of large corporations agree that several companies were already making progress in digitizing sales and operations, but the pandemic ended up persuading decision makers of the need to focus on online sales, and simultaneously accompany it with a plan to transform physical stores.
Identifying and correcting failures in the logistics process of product delivery, while maintaining the satisfaction levels of their customers, who demand facilities to buy online, is the main challenge facing companies in the new commercial "normality".
The outbreak of covid-19 in Central America and the severe home quarantines decreed by the governments, caused the market to undergo deep changes and to be deeply and rapidly transformed, to the point of establishing a new commercial reality.
Placing the most essential products on the website, establishing partnerships with specialized companies to ensure the shipping and delivery of orders on time, are some of the tips for companies to develop e-commerce in the new business reality.
How to reach customers, implement or enhance the digital sales channel in this context of health crisis, are some of the issues that reveal today to many Central American companies.
Making safety and hygiene protocols visible, communicating the cases of covid-19 of its personnel and applying technology in processes to generate trust among its clients are some of the changes that companies must apply in this new business context.
The health emergency and the economic crisis resulting from the covid-19 outbreak changed everything at a global level.