Brazilian retail chain Via, parent company of Casas Bahia and Ponto Frio, reported on Tuesday (21) that it has surpassed 100,000 third-party sellers on its online platform. In these cases, the products are listed on the brand’s e-commerce but offered by different retailers.
At the beginning of 2021, with 10,000 sellers on its marketplace, the company expected to raise this amount to 90,000 by the year’s end. With faster-than-expected evolution, the number of unique products for sale (SKUs) increased from 3 million to 33 million in September.
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Currently, the company uses 30 of its physical stores as a collection support point for products sold through online channels and expects to expand that number to 100 stores by the end of the year.
According to the press release, among the items whose sales rose the most, when compared to September 2020, are:
- Drinks (+567%);
- Automotive products (+378%);
- Products for pets (+230%);
- Home and construction items (+130%);
- Beauty and health products (+120%).
The retailer is reinforcing its financial and logistics solutions through corporate venture capital (CVC) — investments and acquisitions of startups that can be plugged into its core business or develop new opportunities.
Via is bolstering its offers as more Asian-based e-commerces expand activities to Latina America. The company also anticipated the project to bring international sellers to its marketplace. Through a partnership with Uruguayan startup NocNoc, Via opened a section of imported products from the United States and China. The goods are delivered within 15 days.
Marketplaces and digital sales
Via’s announcement happens only one day after its competitor, Magazine Luiza, discloses the same mark: 100,000 partners in its marketplace. In Magalu’s case, as the retailer is usually called, around 40% of this total are the so-called Magalu Partners, small and medium retailers across the country. Until then these retailers were fully analog and joined the company’s platform after the pandemic started.
In August, Magalu launched three options of POS (called MagaluPay), digital accounts, and loans for its partner sellers. The digital accounts are integrated into the company’s platform and delivers a credit card to its users.
According to data from McKinsey, there has been a 20% growth in spending on debit and credit cards in online stores since January 2020.
The consultancy also points out that the pandemic accelerated the digitization of consumers. Still, in 2019, 92% of consumers who tried to shop online became regular customers of these platforms.
(Translated by LABS)
