Mexico's small businesses struggle with e-commerce
Although Mexico is one of the countries that engage in the most e-commerce, several industry experts think that there are currently not enough initiatives in place to assist small enterprises.
E-commerce in Mexico grew by 12.4 percent during the first half of 2022, which placed our country among the 10 nations in the world that most increased their online sales. At a forum put on by a mobility technology platform, the Mexican Association of Online Sales said this.
In an interview with Azteca Noticias, Pierre-Claude Blaise of the Mexican Association of Online Sales confirmed that 7 out of 10 Mexicans have confidence in the platforms. As a result, today 73% of people buy at least once a month. We are talking about 60 million buyers in Mexico.
However, despite these figures, they say that there is still much to be done, especially in the area of business, since the latest data reports that 70 percent of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in our country still do not have access to online commerce, which represents a great challenge.
Small companies without access to e-commerce are a cause for concern
For her part, Elena Estavillo, an expert in the digital ecosystem, highlighted that the lack of access of MSMEs to e-commerce is of concern because they are the ones that generate the most jobs in the country.
She also said that small companies bear the great pressure and very large cost of the transformation since they do not have the same tools that large companies have.
They also insisted that it is not just a matter of acquiring technology and turning it on but that it requires a complete transformation, which is complicated for companies with few resources.
"There are a lot of costs. Imagine you have a small business, you are just starting, and suddenly your data is hacked, and suddenly you get audits from INAI, and suddenly you must have cybercrime insurance. That is, going digital is not just about going digital," said Anabell González, legal affairs representative of the National Chamber of Restaurants and Condiment Food Industry (CANIRAC).
Experts agree that it is important to make public policies and training programs to help small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) through this e-commerce transformation process and gradually close the technological gap.
