Nielsen, in his research conducted on consumer confidence, describes that Latin American consumers are optimistic about purchasing intentions, because the job prospects of ordinary citizens remain stable at 26%, without ignoring a concern for work security. Colombia registered an increase in consumer confidence, with an increase of seven points to 97 compared to the fourth quarter of 2016.

In the health, beauty and personal care industry, growth of 14.3% and 35.1% has been reported, respectively, from 2015 to 2016 and for 2017 it continued to increase. Why? It cannot be omitted to mention that Colombia has stood out (among many factors) for beauty and, for this reason, the need to look and feel good has led Colombians to increase their interest in the purchase of beauty and personal care products.

Online stores, as a sales channel for brands, have had a very strong strength for some years. Nielsen, in its annual report on e-commerce growth in Colombia 2017, predicts that at least until 2019 it will continue to grow at a rate of 17% per year, allowing us to affirm that Colombia is one of the countries with the best forecast for digital sales compared to Latin America.

The country quickly adapted to technological transformations and the big dominant brands were responsible for building a new consumer culture for citizens who, although there is still a long way to go, the target audiences of the brands welcomed the proposal of digital transformation.

Consumers are increasingly buying through online stores due to factors such as ease, convenience, greater product offerings and discounts that only apply to this sales channel. In addition, the optimization of the shopping experience are factors that help boost the growth of brands with online stores.

Read also: Marketing for online stores: the successful case of Clones and Peripherals

In other words, technology and new business models promote the growth of e-commerce in the future. However, companies will need to continue working to build that growth. As a main strategy, it is essential to work on optimizing the online shopping experience for users and only in this way is an increase from sales to traffic, through brand positioning and a high return on investment possible.

Some tools that brands can use to promote sales in online stores are mainly the varieties and security of payment methods such as special prices, after-sales service, level of security, and others.

Brands that decide to jump headlong into digital presence and expect immediate results often fail. Because understanding the real needs of each consumer is a job that only works with the tactic of trial and error. Nowadays, it has been proven that loyalty programs lead the user to visit online stores more frequently and to buy from them. In other words, discounts, free products and/or shipping, charitable donations and priority service are among the most attractive loyalty programs, and therefore effective for consumers.

So, we see that today all brands are aiming at the same goal: stimulating the user to build loyalty. However, while all brands aim for this, only a few achieve true customer loyalty. This loyalty is possible through digital marketing campaigns, in which the customer feels a closeness to the brand. This can be achieved through campaigns on social networks and on the web, in formats such as images, content development, video production, and others.

Brands that decide to jump headlong into digital presence and expect immediate results often fail. Because understanding the real needs of each consumer is a job that only works with the tactic of trial and error. Nowadays, it has been proven that loyalty programs lead the user to visit online stores more frequently and to buy from them. In other words, discounts, free products and/or shipping, charitable donations and priority service are among the most attractive loyalty programs, and therefore effective for consumers.

So, we see that today all brands are aiming at the same goal: stimulating the user to build loyalty. However, while all brands aim for this, only a few achieve true customer loyalty. This loyalty is possible through digital marketing campaigns, in which the customer feels a closeness to the brand. This can be achieved through campaigns on social networks and on the web, in formats such as images, content development, video production, and others.