Por Rodolfo Pollini

E-commerce was already growing exponentially before the pandemic, which boosted this trend and, as a result of confinement, those who previously distanced themselves were encouraged to buy online. They did well, and many will continue to be part of the club.

The lawsuit has this issue quite clear. The analysis, now, must be done from and on the offer. The big retail players and brands know well where the wave is going, but it remains to be seen what happens – and will happen – in the intermediate segment, where SMEs appear, large enough to aspire to growth but not always prepared to take disruptive leaps.

The virus found large companies working in the digital world, so they just had to reinforce those structures. In a recent webinar organized by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), María Benítez, Consumer Channel Marketing Manager at Microsoft for Argentina and Chile, pointed out that the company was already working on the digital transformation of its partners and at this stage it only accelerated the process to help them develop their ecommerce. “We are trying to ensure that when the consumer enters an online store they find the product, they can understand what it is about and the conversion is achieved,” he said. “It is essential to promote cross-selling, adding additional products to the shopping cart and being present at each of those moments.”

When talking about “each of those moments,” the Microsoft executive was surely talking about the need to understand very well the customer journey, that journey of the digital and omnichannel user from the moment they discover or find a product until they pay for it.

Transform the mindset

To enter online commerce, the technological offer is abundant: platforms, pre-designed structures and digital marketing programs, strategies and tactics. But transformation requires, in addition to technology, that the mentality of people and organizations be changed. Opening an online store just to compete with a marketplace, or spreading a brand on social networks, is not digitally transforming. Incorporating more agile processes without transforming the old ones often ends up taking away the agility of the new ones without them being able to transfer all their benefits to the previous ones. This goes for both B2C and B2B relationships. The asymmetry between the already digitalized tip of the business and the one in the middle of the river ends up impacting the results.

Some data

In a Harvard Business Review Analytic Services survey of 734 business leaders, only 13% rated their efforts to digitally transform as effective. The main problems cited were cultural impediments and, to a lesser extent, technology. 55% saw the organization's culture as a major challenge.

In that same study, Melissa Swift, partner and Digital Advisory leader at Korn Ferry, noted that the beginning of the transformation should be looking at the entire organization, including how you hire staff. “For many years, companies hired people for being good managers,” he said. “Now they have to be skilled innovators.”

And where is the client?

Florencia Bameule, Advertising Head Southern Cone at Mercado Libre, said in the MMA webinar that during the pandemic the platform added, at a regional level, 5 million new buyers, of which 700,000 were from Argentina. Just as there were users who overturned prejudices and bought categories they had not imagined, others increased their purchasing frequency. “This puts us in a position to rethink ourselves at the experience level,” he said. “I think that learning is what we are going to take away most and in all areas: from consumers to brands and teams.”

According to Think With Google, 52% of Latin American online shoppers said they have made more online purchases since the pandemic. They have online searches as a priority and demand specific information. More than 80% of Argentines have already searched on the Internet for products or services to buy, even if the purchase was to be made in a physical store.

Two worlds, one world

If for a segment of the offer the physical store and the online store are different structures, the current consumer does not care as long as they get what they are looking for in a timely manner. Two worlds in one. Whoever enters online sales believing that their digital customer is the usual customer but on the Internet, will make the first big mistake.

It is not enough to sell online. You also have to know how to communicate online. The digital and omnichannel consumer does not need to be superlatived by the characteristics of what he is going to buy. You find out that on Google or on the networks. A differentiating value proposition must trade features for benefits. The product and what the consumer desires and expects to obtain from that product are not the same thing. Years ago Theodore Levitt illustrated it well: “The customer does not buy a drill, he buys a hole.”

It is time, then, to work on the contents. Story telling applied to an email marketing campaign, or the incorporation of video in communication are part of what today's consumer expects to find on their journey. Different content must be generated and all communication channels must be used, whatever the business, niche or market. The omnichannel world forces you to know and understand your own buyer persona like never before, but be careful! It also allows you to search and find new audiences.

Today, more than ever before, the resources of the offer have to be like the uses of a Swiss army knife: multiple, and that serve everyone.