08/18/2008 14h26
Electronic retail foresees record sales of US$ 5.4 bi
O Estado de S. Paulo - 08/18//2008
With only 13 years of existence, the electronic retail should reach sales worthy of the real-world companies: R$ 8.5 billion (US$ 5.4 billion), an increase of 35% compared to 2007. The estimate is from the company of information on electronic commerce E-bit, connected to the Brazilian Chamber of Electronic Commerce, main multi-sector entity of the digital economy in Latin America. The historical result is due to the change of habits of the consumers, who increased their average expenditure face to the fall of 12% in the prices of the products sold through Internet, resulted from the favorable US dollar-R$ parity. Tomorrow, E-bit, which accompanies the sector on a six-month basis, will release the balance sheet of the first half of the year. A study made by E-bit shows that, on the average, the individual expenditure of consumers in virtual retail was R$ 324 (US$ 206.4) in the first half. In the same period of 2007 the average was R$ 298 (US$ 189.8). "The increase of the average expenditure of the consumer on the Internet takes place because the consumers start buying greater value-added products other than restricting themselves to CDs, books or DVDs", says E-bit's CEO, Pedro Guasti. According to Guasti, 11.5 million consumers have bought at least one product on the Internet until June. That represents nearly 25% of the total of internet users in the Country, affirms the officer of E-bit. With this setting, two retail giants,
Casas Bahia and Wal-Mart, confirm plans to create their sales website still this year. The good setting for purchases through the Internet was also felt by Business to World (B2W) Retail Global Company which resulted from the acquisition of the electronic portal
Submarino by Americanas.com. Globex Utilidades S.A., from Ponto Frio, is also on alert to the development of electronic sales. In the beginning of this month, Globex Utilidades S.A announced a reorganization of the electronic commerce activities.
