Leaving behind face to face engagements

By Mayora IP

In Central America, Guatemala is one of the countries that is above the Latin American average (26%) in using e-commerce. "The growth is striking because it was a country with a very traditional type of purchase," stated Kathryn Viera, Senior Research Executive of Kantar Mercaplan.

Kantar Mercaplan, a market research and brand consulting agency with over 30 years of experience in Central America and the Caribbean, released a study analyzing consumers behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has driven online shopping and a growth in the preference of electronic payment in Guatemala. 

The latest update of Guatemala’s Country Commercial Guide from the United States Department of Commerce, states that although culturally Guatemalans prefer face to face engagements, new generations are embracing technology and moving away from the traditional retail model. 

“Business people, associations, and the Government acknowledge that e-commerce is a very important electronic tool in doing business and during the current pandemic many stores have started to offer eCommerce. Guatemalans during the lockdowns preferred e-commerce for grocery shopping and others,” the report states.

In Guatemala, the World Bank DIGITAGRO pilot, launched before the pandemic, is developing an e-commerce platform to match schools’ food demand with supply from smallholders.

The platform is key to bring together supply and demand. It can also be adapted to function at a larger scale, to address the current mismatch between food supply and demand arising from the pandemic. Giving farmers the opportunity to access a broader network of customers would also protect their sales and revenue, and improving the dissemination of market information would allow for more efficient production planning as well as lower the costs of production and logistics.