April 22, 2021 8 min read

This article was translated from our Spanish edition using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process.

This story originally appeared on Alto Nivel

With the aim of reaching more Mexican families in the online supermarket, Soriana and Mercado Libre created an alliance to improve the user experience, offering different channels so that they can purchase their products and interact with the store.

“For Soriana it is a commitment as part of its omnichannel strategy to be able to offer customers different channels and ways to buy and interact with us and what better than one of the leading platforms in both Mexico and Latin America? Mercado Libre ”, said Rafael Castelltort, director of electronic commerce of Soriana in a virtual conference.

This union seeks to give a significant boost to online shopping. Today, they start with this official store within the Mercado Libre that seeks to grow in order to reach 10,000 products by the end of the year , focusing a lot on the category of food and beverages, beauty, personal care, pets, home, furniture and babies. .

Free shipping from 299 pesos and deliveries in 24 hours

That said, Mercado Libre logistics is being used so that products can be delivered within 24 hours. Shipping will be free from 299 pesos and nationwide. It should be noted that the strategy on which they are based is 'omnichannel' , a communication model used by companies to improve the experience of their customers by allowing them to be in constant contact with the multiple channels of the company simultaneously.

Likewise, the executive highlighted that this alliance is not only limited to buying the supermarket, but also seeks to be more strategic with respect to attracting traffic to stores and reaching more consumers with a value proposition from Soriana.

For his part, David Diaz, director of Free Market consumer, expressed his excitement for being the first m arketplace that adds a supermarket chain Soriana of the gauge.

"For us it reinforces the commitment to be able to reach more millions of Mexicans by following the promise of Soriana, which is speed and quality so that all Mexican families can access to buy in an online supermarket," said David Díaz.

Growth of the supermarket category in 2020

According to studies by the Mexican Association for Online Sales (AMVO), the supermarket category is one of the most accelerated in the world of electronic commerce. C received a little more than 40% compared to last year, Diaz recalled.

That said, online purchases are estimated to reach a total of $ 2.2 billion by 2024, with an annual growth rate of around 16%. Furthermore, Latin America is the fastest growing ecommerce region in the world

“To give us an idea, the online supermarket sales market in the United States had a growth of more than 54% last year and it is expected that by 2024 it will reach more than 187 billion dollars with an annual growth rate of this period of more than 18.7% ”, explained the expert.

Although Mercado Libre and Soriana come from different natures, both sought to achieve a synergy to implement their strengths. In the case of Mercado Libre and Mercado de Pago , it is a company that uses technology to democratize access to money and credit, in addition to promoting trade and giving sellers the opportunity to access transactions from said platform. On the other hand, Soriana is a leader in the retail trade in supermarkets.

The strongest players in the purchase and delivery of supermarket items in Mexico are Colombia's Rappi and Uber , which last year completed the purchase of the Cornershop delivery app in the country.

This app was originally going to be purchased by Walmart México , but the transaction was not authorized by the Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece).

Soriana is the second largest supermarket chain in Mexico and a few years ago it bought several branches of Comercial Mexicana. Therefore, with the full entry into this segment there will be more competition between the companies that bring the supermarket to your home.

Did the user change their way of buying?

The director of mass consumption of Mercado Libre pointed out that, according to studies carried out, 80% of people who use the Internet did not buy supermarket products online and when they were surveyed again regarding their purchase situation in the future the 84% of them stated that they will continue to consume online supermarket products in the following years.

“Online grocery shopping is here to stay, there is no going back after this situation that we are all experiencing. The supermarket category is key for the development of electronic commerce ”, highlighted the executive.