Americanas lose space to Amazon and Market Livre – 02/27/2023 – Market

Americanas.com, one of the largest e-commerce operations in the country, began to feel the weight of competition even before the crisis triggered by the company’s judicial recovery in January of this year.

This is what research by NielsenIQ|Ebit shows. According to the survey, until the third quarter of 2020, Americanas.com was the first website remembered when shopping. Since then, Amazon has emerged strongly in the preference of internet users, while the dispute for second place with Market Livre has intensified.

In the most recent survey, carried out online in December with 2,412 consumers across the country, Americanas moved from second place as the most remembered store when shopping online to third place, behind Amazon and Market Livre. The survey, with a confidence level of 95%, identified purchase intentions for the first quarter of this year.

“The Americanas crisis could impact the online market as a whole, as they are one of the biggest competitors”, says Marcelo Osanai, e-commerce executive at NielsenIQ|Ebit. In Osanai’s opinion, the loss of the company’s share among the most remembered in recent years was more related to the advances of rivals Amazon and Market Livre than failures in the Americanas.com business.

“Americanas has physical stores acting as distribution points for products purchased online, that is, it is strong in the interaction between channels, in omnichannel, a trend that is here to stay”, he says. In recent years, he says, there has also been an advance of foreign competitors in Brazil, especially Shopee and Shein.

Shopee, by the way, which landed in the Brazilian market in 2021, surpassed the traditional Casas Bahia in e-commerce brand recall, ranking fourth in the first quarter of this year.

“Casas Bahia and Magalu still have a mix that is very focused on furniture and electronics, while Shopee, as well as Amazon and Market Livre are marketplaces, that is, they resell third-party products [sellers]with a much more diversified mix”, says Osanai.

questioned by Sheet Regarding the reasons that made it lose its leadership, Americanas responded, through its press office, that in 2022 it won relevant awards that “prove the strength of its brand”, such as its presence in the TOP 5 of the Ipsos international ranking , “The Most Influential Brands”. The company also claimed to be among the most voted brands by the general public in the NielsenIQ Ebit award, “Best of E-commerce”.

“In recent weeks, Americanas’ social networks have gained over 100,000 new followers, with high engagement in all publications,” the company said, also noting that the brand “has shown itself to be strong and resilient for nearly a hundred years in the country” and , even in court-supervised reorganization, “follows close to its clients”.

Less electronics and more supermarkets in online shopping in 2023

In terms of shopping intentions in the first quarter of this year, supermarkets continue to rise, indicates NielsenIQ|Ebit: 65% of respondents intend to buy at least six products, including food and beverages, over the internet in the period.

The intention to purchase more expensive products is falling: 6 percentage points for the purchase of home appliances and 15 percentage points for the purchase of electronics, compared to the same period last year.

According to the survey, 93% of respondents intend to buy something online in this first quarter of the year, an increase of three percentage points over the same period of 2022.

“2020 and 2021 have been fantastic years for online retail, and they shouldn’t be repeated any time soon,” he told Sheet Silvio Stagni, president of electronics retailer Allied. In 2022, there was a kind of “hangover”, with people starting to spend on other fronts, such as travel. “The sale of cell phones fell 5%, that of notebooks retreated 15%, while the sale of TVs grew 10%, thanks to the Cup”, he says, citing data from the GfK consultancy.

For this year, he bets on switching cell phones to 5G models. But, due to the macroeconomic scenario, Allied also invests in used smartphones: the company launched Trocafy, a platform for the sale of recertified devices from Apple, Samsung and Motorola.

“With the Americanas event, everyone is more suspicious and conservative, especially in the granting of credit”, says the executive.

“We continue on the Americanas marketplace, after a break to resolve the issue of credit insurance”, says Stagni, referring to retail default insurance. In the retailer’s list of creditors, Allied has about R$ 90 million to receive. With the activation of the insurance, the company receives the amount, while the insurer becomes Americanas’ creditor.

“Whatever happens to Americanas, the market will remain the same size”, says Stagni. According to him, demand will remain the same and other e-commerce players will supply it.

In Alberto Serrentino’s opinion, Americanas’ greatest resilience is in physical retail. “If the stores continue to be supplied, without breaking stocks, sales continue, because the points have traffic and clientele”, he says. Online, the challenge is much more complex.

“The loss of customers is very fast, because the purchase already starts in the search engines”, he says. “If the customer goes to Google and does not find the Americanas product, or if it appears in a secondary position, or at a price that is not competitive, if it is not in stock, the sale migrates to another player”, says Serrentino.

The expert recalls that the marketplace store owner, the seller, is not exclusive. “If he is insecure in Americanas, he will migrate his sale to Market Livre or Magalu, for example. This makes the online sale dehydrate much more quickly than the physical one”, he says.

Therefore, it is essential to know to what extent Americanas will be able to maintain the online sale of its store inventory (called ‘1P’ in e-commerce jargon), as well as the investment in activation and traffic, in order to keep sellers engaged, with the offer of stocks and competitive prices within the platform.

High interest rates, inflation and credit tightening make companies review business

The Americanas crisis comes at a turning point in Brazilian electronic retail. After an accelerated expansion with the pandemic, the reopening of physical stores and the macroeconomic moment, with high interest rates and inflation, contribute to a scenario of lower growth.

Another NielsenIQ|Ebit survey, this one on e-commerce revenues in 2022, revealed a nominal growth of just 2% in 2022, to R$262 billion. The value does not consider foreign sites (crossborder), such as Shopee, Shein and Aliexpress, which are included in another NielsenIQ|Ebit survey, which has not yet been completed.

But taking into account the accumulated inflation of 5.79% by the IPCA last year, there was a drop in revenue from online sales.

“The low growth of electronic retail last year has two explanations: a very large jump in 2020 and 2021, driven by the pandemic when stores were closed, and the companies’ agenda aimed at sustainable growth in 2022”, says the specialist in retail Alberto Serrentino, partner at Varese Retail consultancy.

According to data compiled by the consultancy, electronic retail today represents around 15% of Brazilian retail sales, which is a big leap compared to the pre-pandemic level, when it accounted for around 6% of sales, according to data from the Federal Revenue. , indicated by the CNC (National Confederation of Commerce).

“Online retail stabilized on the rise. But last year the scenario was different: companies were not willing to grow at any cost”, says Serrentino. “That meant less willingness for free shipping, aggressive discounts and long interest-free installments, which, of course, inhibited demand and slowed down sales,” he says. Not by chance, on Black Friday 2022, there was the first decrease in revenue since the date started to be celebrated in Brazil.

At the same time, says Serrentino, rising interest rates, inflation and the high cost of capital have made the economic scenario more complex. “The market has slowed down worldwide,” he says.

In Brazil, an increase of 11% was observed in the number of orders in 2022, despite the growth of only 2% in nominal revenue. “That’s because there was a greater demand for supermarket items, with less added value”, says Marcelo Osanai. Last year, the volume of online food and beverage orders increased by 72% (data does not include food delivery).