The cosmetics and perfume company Avon missed the explosion electronic commerce that caused the Covid-19 pandemic, because its objective was to create a digital option that could include the more than 450,000 representatives it has in Mexico, said José Barrera, director of Digital Strategy for Avon in Latin America.
The company specialized in catalog sales through representatives launched this June 21 its site of electronic commercewhich allows buyers to purchase products directly from Avon or through a representative of the brand, in a model that resembles the affiliate programs of platforms such as amazon.
According to Barrera, the strategy is for the representatives to have a digital store that complements other channels, such as direct social sales (sales through a physical catalog) or through other means such as WhatsApp Y Telegram. The platform, he assures, is aimed at people who do not know about electronic commerce, Logistics or in digital marketing can make sales over the internet.
As in the direct catalog sales model, Avon representatives obtain a 30% commission for each order placed with their link in the company’s ecommerce. The buyers are the ones who cover the shipping cost, which takes between 36 and 48 hours to be delivered, although the platform has schemes to reduce this cost.
“Where were you? They missed the pandemic. Surely yes and surely no. The truth is that we did it on purpose because it is a particular ecommerce, as it promotes digital inclusion”, says Barrera.
Retail trade through the internet, printed catalogs and television grew 11.2% in March 2022 compared to the same month last year, according to figures from the Monthly Survey on Commercial Companies (EMEC), of the Inegi, which, however, does not disaggregate information on each segment.
Sales through the internet in 2020, the year the Covid-19 pandemic began, according to the measurement of the Mexican Association of Online Sales (AMVO), registered a growth of 81% compared to 2019. In 2021, this channel of the retail saw a growth of 27%, which implies that it increased its sales by more than 100% in two years.
According to Paulina Ortiz, Ecommerce leader at Nielsen Mexico, the category of personal hygiene and beauty, to which most of Avon’s products belong, registered sustained growth in its penetration among Mexican society, unlike other sectors. , such as pharmaceuticals or groceries, whose penetration has decreased since the peak they reached during the pandemic.
Karina García, who has been a representative of Avon for 12 years, went from the physical catalog to the catalog in PDF format and after the health emergency, she began taking training with Avon to use the infrastructure that the company’s new ecommerce represents.
“It cost us a lot of work to adapt, to innovate. We were very resistant to occupying the digital catalog, but now we can sell with a single click”, she said.
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