The magic of the order of Marie Kondo was the strawberry of the dessert for many to be encouraged to get rid of articles. The crisis, however, is the most realistic explanation of the phenomenon that exists in networks, where friends and acquaintances take advantage of the six degrees of separation to put their products on sale.
In fact, the rise of online sales on sites such as Facebook or Instagram are the opposite of what happens at the country level.
"There are innumerable data that reflect the critical situation of the economy, one of them is the fall in the use of the installed capacity of the industry: in January it was 56%, a record even more worrisome than the same month of 2018, when it stood at 61%, "economist Edmundo Szterenlicht says in a dialogue with iProUP.
For the expert, the impact caused by the restrictive monetary policy and high interest rates limit the possibilities not only of making investments, but also to sustain working capital, especially in SMEs. To this, we add the escalation of a dollar that seems to have no ceiling and that leads to more inflation.
In the context of a crisis that does not give up, electronic commerce has been the other way round. According to some analysts, both issues have a certain link. That is to say, before the fall of the purchasing power of the salary, the number of Argentines that seeks to increase their income by selling online increases.
Indeed, through the most popular platforms and the different marketplaces:
- Just over 120 million products have been shipped in the last twelve months
- This figure is equivalent to a year-on-year increase of 25%, measured in
- In terms of billing, $ 230,000 million, representing an increase of close to 50%
On the opposite side, everything is negative. The sales in shopping centers and supermarkets do not stop their decline and multiply the companies that must close their doors or are forced to resort to the preventive crisis procedure.
Revenues in stores are down and those that are generated on the web, rising.
Martín Lang, president of Mastercard Argentina, brings to iProUP a phrase that summarizes what is coming. According to data handled by the company, the ecommerce curve "will intersect with that of physical commerce next year or next."
In other words, purchases with non-contact cards (web) will surpass face-to-face (shops) in the very short term.
Faced with the growth of online sales, not only brands are aiming to sell more over the Internet, but also SMEs and individuals.
According to Mercado Libre, more than 80,000 people live from the commercialization of products on their platform. But the portal of Marcos Galperín is not the only one that captures this upward trend: the MarketPlace and the Facebook wall -when not charging commission- also rank high among the options most chosen by users to surf the crisis.
The difference with respect to the rest of the ecommerce platforms is that it is a channel of direct communication between sellers and buyers: there is no charge to publish, there are no shipments, everything works like a "flea market" but through the Internet .
A growing phenomenon
Those that sell through the Marketplace of the social network have profiles and objectives as varied as the amount of products offered on the platform.
Also, different motivations, either to complement salaries that do not resist inflation, cope with unforeseen expenses and, in several cases, to get rid of the stock left by the closure of a business on the street, after not being able to bear the cost for rent and maintenance.
According to this means, about 7.75 million Argentines interact in Facebook's large window, whether to buy, sell or simply observe the menu of products and services offered for sale. And, of that total, more than a million people market through this social network.
When looking for the keys to this phenomenon, from the Association of Entrepreneurs of Argentina (ASEA) indicate to iProUP that micro-ventures seek, through channels of this type, to generate a community and achieve engagement (empathy).
"In a pressing context in terms of inflation, fixed costs that increase, fall in real wages, many people join the digitalization trend of traditional businesses, which has been increasing year after year," he describes in a dialogue with iProUP Daniel Tricarico , Executive Director of ASEA.
The executive adds that "Instagram is a channel that works very well in areas such as fashion, gastronomy and search for experiences."
Another point that explains the use of social networks as a sales channel in frank growth are the fees that Mercado Libre charges for the use of its platform, namely:
- 13% of the amount of the product for the basic publication
- 27% for the "premium" publication, which allows offering interest-free installments
Besides the Marketplace, another of the modalities used is to offer products through their own networks: on the wall or through Instagram stories and WhatsApp states. After all, they are all platforms of the Facebook family.
Convenience
In addition to not paying commissions for the use, social networks as point of sale allow to avoid the expenses derived from a "physical" place. And that translates into more attractive prices for consumers compared to the traditional channel.
Some examples: pants for less than $ 500, shoes under $ 1,000, direct furniture factory, housing without intermediaries and products of all kinds and color.
"The first time I sold some Harry Potter books in English, I had offered them first in Mercado Libre but I did not succeed." On Facebook, I quickly dispatched them because an acquaintance gave them to his niece, also a fan, "says Claudia Regina Martínez, who was unemployed two years ago.
In addition to enabling these connections, the MarketPlace allows us to delimit publics, promoting e-commerce in towns, cities or small municipalities and allowing users to communicate with their neighbors.
"The 'Face' has a service that publishes your ad on all the sales pages of the region, sometimes I check my city and in other specific cases it covers nearby locations that are 100km away," explains Jorge Arabito, professor of Olavarría, in the province of Buenos Aires.
Arabito is an expert in computer science and, therefore, knows how to detect black market products, one of the main disadvantages of buying in the social network. "Sometimes, there are devices but without the corresponding accessories", exemplifies.
With so many categories available in the Facebook market, the breadth of products or services is more than varied: land, books, electronics, clothing, accessories, motorcycles, cars, cell phones and computers, among other items sold on the platform. .
In addition, the connections between users of the social network help to overcome the "distrust" of buying a stranger, something that does not happen in the sales channels such as Mercado Libre, where there are reputation systems, claims and fraud prevention. But transactions are also resolved more agilely.
"I sold clothes, furniture, appliances, chairs, chairs, all on Facebook, which generates friend friends and generates a community, because there is a prior confidence.When I moved, in less than a week I managed to place everything," he says. Carolina Balderrama, journalist by profession and expert in selling on social networks.
Although at the beginning it began to use the networks for replacement, when seeing that it was an exit to have cash in the day to day it took it like a parallel activity to compensate the inflation.
"Now, I'm going to sell a lot of dresses because I need the cash, I'm also trying to get out of mass purchases or supermarkets and try out places in the neighborhood and small producers, designers, etc.", he adds.
Tienda Nube, Instagram and MercadoLibre remained as an option for users with their own projects. Such is the case of Julieta Mastrostéfano and many other independent producers.
"I have a stationery business, since I started, I sell all by Instagram, MercadoLibre, Tienda Nube and Facebook, although you have to work on the presentation of the products -as it is the only reference that the buyer has to choose-, with very low budget could give me to know and have contact with people from all over the country, "he reveals.
Mastrostéfano advises to take care of the "clear and attractive photos, where the article stands out, also add a detailed description, to reduce doubts, and always put the means of contact in sight, so that the buyer arrives easily".
These are three cases of the more than 1 million Argentines who bet on social networks to earn extra money. And there are few who have found on the web the ideal channel to develop their entrepreneurial vocation.
