He is already preparing his brand new Expoweb, the virtual exhibition that plans to carry out at the end of next May, to add its traditional expORD, which last year could not perform but whose next edition program for the second half of September. However, Rafael Tschudy, general director of the Interior Network, was made a few minutes to analyze the situation and expose his projections on what comes in this 2021, in which Covid 19 will continue to condition consumers habits and, consequently, moving the threads of the markets. “The growth of sales in units of 2020 was very important in relation to 2019 in several families of products. Both in technology and in mattresses and small appliances. Measured in pesos, even, even more, with greater percentage profitability. It is true that, with the pandemic, the difficulty of provision They were not the best, ”says the businessman. "Given uncertainty, many chose not to force sales and suffered from falls in their income. But those who bet to continue selling revenues. In our case, from May we started growing taking advantage of the fact that the chains of the interior were without products. The billing increased from there in more. We closed an excellent year," he draws a balance.

In numbers, how much was that growth?
If we compare 2020 in relation to 2019 as a calendar year, the growth in the box was between 130 and 170 percent, depending on the areas. At first, most sales were concentrated in a few families of products: cell phones, tablets, televisions, consoles, notebooks, mattresses, personal care and small appliances. Then, due to the reduction in production and improvements in sales, kitchens and fringing began to miss. And now, due to problems in the importation of fabrics, we are missing sheets and padded.

Did they have to modify commercial management?
Commercial management changed a lot during the pandemic, and still still. Today, it is summarized to get the products to sell. Price and payment condition are no longer discussed. There are very few product offers and a lot of demand. The confinement and work from home generated savings, product of the limit of mobility and per diem expenses, among others. In addition to the subsidies, to the injection of silver to the market and to the change of habits, our sales were exponentially improved, both in person in our businesses and via e-commerce.

How did changes face the online channel?
Corporately, the network did not make any development of electronic commerce. The associates did individually, with great growth of sales both in their portals and in social networks. Therefore, we are now delineating an e-commerce platform, with the purpose of becoming part of that business and supporting the individual actions that each of our associates is making.

What projections do for 2021?
2021 we see it equal to 2020. That is, totally uncertain, without clear guidelines of work, with very few possibilities of importing, less cash disposition and with greater delinquency in the credits.

Do you think that the evolution of economic activity will contribute or, on the contrary, can stop the growth of sales of the network associated?
With very unreliable macro and microeconomic indicators, for us, the scenarios change permanently. Within the maelstrom in which we are immersed, we are almost impossible to plan. Minimally, we should be certain when we will be vaccinated to start planning a future. Even so, we believe that we will continue to grow, surely with more leisurely steps. But in January and February we grew up, less than in 2020, but we grew up.