November became the most active month for Brazil‘s e-commerce, and in 2020 it marked the ripening of some of the sector’s worldwide main trends in the country, driven by the exponential growth in the sector due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, Brazilian retail giants B2W‘s Americanas.com and Magazine Luiza (also known as Magalu) extrapolated the typical discounts and created live shows to attract the customers’ attention. This year, with more structure and targeted offers, both companies had definitely committed to this mix of entertainment, commerce, and technology in large lives broadcast on TV and the Internet, just as it has been for years in China.
Although with different modus operandi – in China, the number of influencers with selling power is greater, and the consumer culture is more present in the day-to-day online content –, the similarities are evident and chart the way for the future of e-commerce in Latin America.
Betting on a well-known formula (influencers and celebrities participating in a game show while announcing great deals), Americanas registered almost eight million views only on Felipe Neto‘s channel. He is the second-largest YouTuber in the world and the host of the company’s presentation.
On Magalu’s side, the bet went beyond the online environment again, to traditional TV, with a broadcast on Multishow, a cable entertainment channel of the Globosat network, starring celebrities such as the famous television presenter Luciano Huck and the Brazilian pop singer Anitta.
The aesthetics here was much more geared to the audience used to popular television programs than that of Americanas’, which focused on the Internet audience. No wonder Magalu’s channel on YouTube did not exceed 500,000 views during the live exhibition.
Magalu’s main goal, between a famous singer performance and the live entrance of some influencer, was to attract the audience to the company’s super app, which embraced the whole experience, in addition to allowing the customers to follow the main deals of Magalu’s campaign, called “Black of the Blacks.”
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Other great services also joined the Black Friday wave in Brazil and announced smaller shows, but with deals worthy of the date. The country’s leading delivery app iFood offered more than 20,000 meals at BRL 0.99 and embraced the idea of challenges and live videos during the week. With the population’s increasing engagement with online services and the unified experiences, whether in the app or on the web, it is likely that in 2021 we will see all these initiatives happening via apps mostly.
In addition to the obvious need to adapt to mobile devices, the future of e-commerce in Brazil seems to be on its way to an increasingly intrinsic union between sales, entertainment, and technology. Interactive mobility, combined with a shopping experience encouraged by familiar faces. That’s the future shown by this November 2020, which can happen even before the next year’s Black Friday.
