In 2020, the Internet became the primary means of acquiring goods and services . The lockdown measures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated the growth and adoption that e-commerce platforms were already experiencing in Latin America .
Within this scenario, Colombia was the 4th country in Latin America that registered the most purchases and sales in e-commerce, and, according to BlackSip, the companies that offer these services in the country had a growth in their income of 130%.
Join us in this article to analyze in greater detail how e-commerce grew in Colombia during 2020, in terms of supply and demand, and what is forecast for 2021.
E-commerce purchasing behavior (demand)
Between February and May 2020, Mercado Libre registered 366,095 new Colombian buyers on its platform. Compared to 2019, this represented a growth of 113%.
In relation to these countries, Colombia was the 4th country that registered the most new users and the one that had the greatest growth.
graph-number-of-new-Colombian-buyers-free-market
According to PayU, the number of Colombian buyers, compared to 2019, also grew, specifically by 32%, reaching a total of 15.2 million users.
Colombia was the second country that had the highest growth in the taiwan phone number number of orders within Mercado Libre during the second quarter of 2020, with an increase of 119%.
graph-growth-of-orders-in-the-latam-free-market-2020
During the last week of April and the first week of May 2020, this was the top 10 searches on Mercadolibre Colombia:
N95 mask
Face mask
Infrared thermometer
Laptops
Dumbbells
Ps4
Cell phones
Hairdressing machine
Tablet
Xbox 360
In this sense, the most consulted categories were: health and medical equipment (masks), mobile devices, video games and equipment for exercising at home.
In the health and equipment category, the number of available units of face masks increased by 4,676%, antibacterial gel by 383% and thermometers by 97%.
The number of home exercise equipment surveyed grew by 154% and bicycle accessories by 14.3%.
The number of video games grew by 228% and audio and video cables by 149%.
According to the report on the global digital situation, carried out by Hootsuite and We Are Social, the e-commerce activities that Colombian users between 16 and 64 years of age carried out the most during 2020 are divided in percentage terms as follows:
87.7% search online for products and services they want to buy.
87.3% of users visit retail websites or digital stores.
66.3% of users use mobile applications to make a purchase.
67.1% make product purchases online.
45% make online product purchases from mobile devices.
graphs-statistics-colombia-ecommerce-2020
Read more about this report here: Statistics on the digital situation in Colombia in 2020-2021
This report also indicated how spending through e-commerce was distributed by consumer categories. In this regard, the industry that reported the most revenue was food and personal care with 430.9 million dollars.
Annual e-commerce spending by category in Colombia in 2020
In contrast to these data, it is curious that on Mercado Libre, names of food and personal care products did not appear in the top 10 searches during the last week of April and the first week of May 2020.
As for payment methods, more than half of the users registered in the Data Reportal report make their online purchases with a credit card.