Omnichannel and financial inclusion: this was the tenth edition of the Hot Sale

[sanjoykumar593]

Over the years, eCommerce has grown steadily in our country, and one of the factors that has contributed to its acceptance among Mexican consumers is HotSale, which year after year presents special offers and discounts, and in which eCommerce is a star, achieving more powerful sales online than even during Christmas or El Buen Fin.

And this HotSale has been no exception. To tell us more about it, we have here Pierre Claude Blaise, CEO of the Mexican Association of Online Sales (AMVO). 

Interview with Pierre Claude Blaise, CEO of AMVO

AMVO is made up of a group of entrepreneurial partners passionate about the digital economy. We started in 2014, mainly discussing the opportunities represented by this digital ecosystem, which no one was talking about at the time.

 Although there were companies that had been selling online since 1999, there was a lot of ground to gain and the idea of AMVO was born to help companies take advantage of this ecosystem. Our first initiative was the Hot Sale, which came with a double purpose: on the one hand, to demonstrate to Mexicans that buying online is convenient, and on the other, to help companies take the first step towards the digital world and that realize that e-commerce does work.

We have just closed the tenth edition of the HotSale, with spectacular results, so I believe that it is playing a role in homogenization, both with consumers and with companies. 

We have just published the results and the truth is we are very happy. We had a  Telegram Number Data participation of 680 companies and reached 29.9 billion pesos in sales, which represents a growth of 29% compared to the previous year. We can break this growth down into 33% retail and 26% other categories. This year we had 29 million units sold, with an average ticket of 2,700 pesos, which is 76% more than last year.

This is the most omnichannel event in our history, 8 out of 10 participating companies declared that they had implemented strategies taking into account both physical stores and digital strategies . In addition, it was the most inclusive event in our history, because more SMEs participated than in the past, 25% of the participating companies were SMEs and we created a special package for them (Hot SMEs).

Speaking of users, according to the study we published, the segment of the participating population that grew the most was the C- middle class, people who were not purchasing because they did not have electronic payment methods, so it is an achievement. 

It was also the safest event in our history, 8 out of 10 users declare that they feel safe buying during this HotSale and the total number of complaints to the Federal Consumer Protection Agency (Profeco) was 12, which compared to the number of units sold is a a result that highlights the good planning of the participating companies and the good attention to user problems.

Before the event we had doubts due to the economic context, because although the Hot Sale arrives at an ideal time, we do not have enough economic freedom that we want. In this sense, 5 out of 10 users declared having purchased in the Hot Sale and for 40% of them it was their first purchase, which shows great growth potential. In addition to this, the Hot Sale met or exceeded the expectations of 92% of consumers and 61% of them would have liked to buy more.

To collect all this data, we carry out surveys and studies with various types of tools and we have been generating studies for years with Ilsen, SimilarWeb, GfK, RetailCompass, which allow us to always identify trends to act and improve the event in future editions. Additionally, at AMVO we have AMVO Analytics, a research house that we launched to analyze event details that allow us to visualize the activity and make better decisions. 

99% of digital buyers of Electronics in Mexico buy via smartphone (Amvo)

I believe that we all have the same objective of offering a good customer experience and the perception of companies regarding complaints has changed a lot, which eight years ago were seen as an expense, but now they are seen as an investment, because we already know that a Well-attended complaints lead to positive comments and customer loyalty. 

In addition to this, we have seen a lot of work hand in hand with Profeco, which does a great job for consumer protection. In fact, Mexico is one of the countries where the user is best protected, so we have a very favorable context. 

We have to take into account that 82% of the Mexican population is middle or lower class, which is the part that is not banked, and they represent 42% of online purchases, which speaks of the opportunity we still have to grow and include these people in digital purchases. 

The problem has mainly resided in the lack of strategies to include these consumers who do not have a bank account. That is to say, six or seven years ago people were not told that they could pay in cash in convenience stores, and we did not have digital solutions that allow people without an account to participate, such as the case of Buy Now Pay. Later (BNPL).

Currently, we have seen that true strategies for the middle class are beginning to appear, ranging from the type of catalog, prices, payment methods to logistics. In fact, speaking about the future of electronic commerce in Mexico, I think that the main opportunity is the type of approach that companies are going to give to this audience. 

The traditionally best-selling categories are fashion, beauty, personal care, computers, tablets, cell phones and television . This year we saw strong growth in the beauty and personal care category, which before the pandemic was not even in the top 5 and is now positioned as second. 

Of course, all the data is very important because it reflects growth, but the fact that we have reached 10 editions with a total accumulated sales that exceed 110 billion pesos fills me with pride. 

Beyond growth, HotSale is known in Europe, in the United States as a great temporary event, in fact it is the largest in Latin America, so it fills me with pride to know that we are putting Mexico on the map of the digital economy and that it is a joint effort with the AMVO team and the companies in the ecosystem.

YouTube video player

During this edition we pushed omnichannel a lot with businesses, and the topic of inclusion and SMEs were the two most important topics. Much of our work focused on convincing companies that it is time to continue investing in electronic commerce given the economic situation that exists worldwide. 

For six months we worked with all the companies to make a decision: we stop investing and lose everything we have built, such as being in the top 10 of countries that sell the most online and being the second country in growth globally, or continue moving forward by investing money and focusing on people.

Every year we organize training so that companies know how to better take advantage of all aspects of the Hot Sale, such as logistics, promotions, marketing and more. To do this, we rely on AMVO Academy, in collaboration with the AMVO events area, which organizes many events or webinars to train companies. We have already launched a program 100% focused on supporting SMEs, each with their very different needs. 

First of all, the user is at the center of all our strategies and both AMVO and the companies that participate in the HotSale do not want to deceive anyone. But in case some companies want to cheat, we are always monitoring prices, we work hand in hand with Profeco and we also train companies so that they know what can and cannot be done, which has given very good results. 

In fact, the biggest reason for purchasing in this HotSale has been because of the good promotions. And here comes another interesting fact, this year's edition has been the one with the highest number of promotions in the last four years. With RetailCompass we noticed that we had, on average, a 16% discount in the HotSale, almost the same as the Buen Fin, which was 17%.

The channels that were most used for promotion were social networks and television. Participating companies use, on average, four means of communication to communicate their presence at the event. 93% of companies declare that they used digital media and 61% used traditional media.