Marketers' Roundtable: Ecommerce in Argentina Isn't a Trend—It's a Consumer Habit

What retailers have to do to keep up

Diego Urfeig
Executive Director
Cámara Argentina de Comercio Electrónico (CACE)
Ignacio Álvarez Sáez
General Manager and Chief Growth Officer
Logan
Marcos Christensen
Vice President, Southern Cone
comScore
Marcos Pueyrredón
President
El Instituto Latinoamericano de Comercio Electrónico (eCommerce Institute)

Argentina’s ecommerce market has reached the stage when consumers—especially the younger demographics—are beginning to incorporate online shopping into their everyday lives, but there’s still a lot of work to be done to push wider adoption. eMarketer’s Matteo Ceurvels spoke with four local experts about what’s driving the growth of ecommerce and how retailers can do their part to bring shopping into the future. These interviews were conducted as part of our August report, “Latin America Ecommerce 2018: Digital Buyer Trends for Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.”

eMarketer:

What has been holding ecommerce growth back in Argentina?

Marcos Pueyrredón:

The professionalization of companies and entrepreneurs is a great challenge for those who want to surf the waves of Argentina’s new digital commerce revolution. But above all else, they must first learn to master the concept of omnicommerce—it has been a good practice that has allowed many companies to generate a positive online shopping experience for their customers over the past 15 years.

Diego Urfeig:

The main reason why consumers don’t buy online today is simply because they prefer to do so in person. The physical store gives them a sense of closeness that online shopping will never replace.

Marcos Christensen:

Logistics are one of the biggest challenges the region needs to solve. That’s why retailers and ecommerce companies have been developing strategies to help lower shipping costs. Otherwise, they end up costing the same as the product itself.

Ignacio Álvarez Sáez:

It’s very expensive to mail something in Argentina. For example, last week I bought a book online on MercadoLibre for ARS$300 [about $18], and the shipping fees came out to ARS$350 [about $21].”

eMarketer:

On the other hand, what factors are propelling ecommerce in Argentina?

Interview conducted on July 6, 2018

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