Some weeks ago the Colombian Ecommerce Chamber (CCCE for its Spanish stands) published the results of the first Colombian e-commerce study. On the results we found that on 2013 (take into account the study was made for 2013 and not 2014) the sales with credit card and debit card through ecommerce add up to $8,283 million dollars, which corresponds to the 2,19% of the GDP of the same year.
The truth is that this number surprised many people working in the industry. Although it is true that people knew ecommerce had grown in huge proportions in the last 5 years, the most optimist people though it corresponded to around the 0,5% of the nations GDP. As you can imagine, these are great news for everyone working in the industry.
More than the numbers, that really surprise us, what it show us is that definitely Colombian people – and I am sure that the same happens in other markets of the region- are buying on the Internet. The belief that buyers fear about buying through these channels, the product quality, that it doesn’t get lost, is completely distorted when we see these kind of figures.
Therefore, as entrepreneurs and businessmen we must understand that people are buying on Internet, because they trust in the channel and they are willing to use it. If our product or service can be sold through this channel and we haven’t entered to it, figures like this show us that we are wasting big opportunities.
Take into account all the above, because is you are still fearful about this channel, other competitor is going to understand sooner than later, that this is a groundless fear and is going to open the channel to its clients creating a competitive advantage. Also remember that in markets where Internet presences are not mature, if you make a little effort on your Internet strategy and you make more than what your competitors are doing, your customers will notice it.
I hope that the reflection I just made has been helpful, and you understand that today an Internet strategy is not an option but an obligation.
Image taken from Flickr.com