New data management methodologies now allow retailers to take advantage of even the smallest piece of information to generate valuable insights that help optimize their marketing and customer loyalty strategies.
What promotions do we do to get more customers to the point of sale?
How do we make them stay longer in the store?
How do we improve the customer experience so that they buy more at each visit?
Analyzing the offerings of a supermarket, department store or convenience store and examining what type of consumers frequent those establishments is key to establishing which chains a company's products should be present in to increase their profitability.
By analyzing large volumes of data, it is possible to combine information on the products that commercial establishments sell with details of the types of consumers that are attracted to the different chains.
Greater preference for private brands, less use of cash and fewer purchases but in higher volumes, are some of the characteristics of current consumer behavior when it comes to demanding mass consumption products.
In this new business scenario, market research companies continue to focus on understanding the new consumption habits of people in all countries in the region.
Understanding audiences and visualizing the client as the center and reason for the company's existence is fundamental to adapting business models to the new commercial reality.
The statistics, trends and projections that were used to analyze and define business models and strategies before the pandemic lost their validity due to the emergence of a new economic and commercial reality.
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.
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.
How many people live around a shopping center, how old they are, what is their consumption level and what products or services they are looking for, are some of the questions that can be answered with the new geomarketing tools.
Measuring the potential demand of micro markets, based on the evaluation of the environment of a shopping center and its comparison with other similar sales points, has become essential to design adequate commercial strategies.
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.
Reaching consumers in a confined scenario has been a complex task for companies distributing mass consumption products, since the operation of some of the commercial channels has been limited in the region's markets.
In Panama, companies engaged in the wholesale distribution of food products such as oats, beverages, snacks and others have faced challenges during the weeks of home quarantine, which was decreed by the authorities following the outbreak of covid-19.
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.
Restrictions on the movement of people test the ability of companies to survive, since in the new business reality it is not enough to have a website to market products, as customers demand effective sales and delivery systems.
In early April, when Guatemala was just beginning its quarantine due to the covid-19 outbreak and the government began banning the movement of people after 4 p.m., some customers reported that the online sales systems of the country's large fast food restaurant chains collapsed in the face of increased demand.
So far this year, interest in e-commerce services in Central American markets has clearly picked up, with Guatemala, El Salvador and Panama recording the largest increases in e-commerce interactions.
Through a system that monitors in real time the changes in the interests and preferences of consumers in Central American countries, developed by the Area of Commercial Intelligence of CentralAmericaData, it is possible to project trends in demand in the short and long term, for different products, sectors and markets operating in the region.
Once the Central American economies begin to return to normal, as the restriction and quarantine measures that have been taken to prevent the spread of the covid-19 are relaxed, household consumption patterns will have changed significantly.
For example, the demand for meals out of home will decrease by about 7% from the levels reported prior to the crisis.
In Central America, it is estimated that the sectors that could expect a severe impact on sales in the coming months are Transport, Entertainment and some sub-sectors of Industry and Trade.
The "Information system for the Covid-19 Impact Analysis on Business", prepared by the Trade Intelligence Unit of CentralAmericaData, measures the degree of impact that the crisis will have on companies according to their sector, during the coming months.
Fear of the unknown and the belief that a serious problem justifies a dramatic response, pushes consumers to make panicky purchases, driven by anxiety and a willingness to calm their fears.
Following the spread of covid-19 worldwide and its declaration as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), businesses worldwide have reported a considerable increase in the products they offer, which can be explained by consumer behavior in a context such as the current one.