Brazilian e-commerce moved around R$204 billion in 2024according to the Brazilian Electronic Commerce Association (ABCOMM). There were more than 414 million orders carried out by 91 million consumers — numbers that place Brazil among the most mature digital markets in the world.
Even so, Most companies still stumble in digital transformation.
The contradiction was highlighted during the management innovation event promoted by , which brought together experts to discuss the topic in the lecture “Exponential e-commerce: data, journeys and conversion”.
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Driven by Eduardo Oliveira (CEO from GoDeep), Lucas Brum (partner and head of growth at Flowbiz) and Victor Maglio (GPA e-commerce director), the panel brought a common conclusion: technology is only part of the equation.
The real difference is in the digital culturealready ability to interpret data by change of mindset necessary to make better decisions and evolve quickly.
“We talk about B2B e-commerce as if it were something new, but it’s not quite like that. This industry’s entry into e-commerce comes from the maturity – or imposition – of the market itself”, he says Eduardo Oliveirafrom GoDeep.
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According to the expert, Brazil is already among the five most developed e-commerce markets in the worldahead of regions traditionally seen as a reference, such as Europe, for example.
Despite the progress, the executive notes that the B2B segment still faces structural gapsespecially in the qualification of professionals. For Oliveira, digital transformation needs to be understood as an internal movement towards organizational maturityand not just as an online presence.
“The industry falls into the trap of thinking that the only way to digitize is to serve the end customer. But transformation needs to be in all sectors, from finance to logistics.”
Digital culture starts at the top
In the view of Victor Magliodirector of e-commerce at GPA, there is no strong e-commerce without a strong digital culture.
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“There’s no point in having a tool, an engaged professional and a customer wanting to buy if the company owner doesn’t want digital as a culture.”
The executive exemplifies with the group’s own reality. “At GPA, the first person who asks me about digital sales is the CEO. Today, digital is strategic for the business”, he says.
According to Maglio, the The first step to digital success is the decision to lead this change from the inside out.
“If you are not selling digitally, someone is selling to your customer”, he provokes, highlighting the role of leadership in sustaining this transition.
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Data-driven decisions
Maglio also shares a strategic shift at GPA that was born out of data analysis: the group realized that many customers abandoned the shopping cart in e-commerce because they could not find perishable products, which were only available in physical stores.
“With this data in hand, we made a tough decision: we migrated 100% of the operation from the Distribution Centers to the stores”, he says.
The change brought retail closer to consumers and generated a new sales profile.
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“Today, around 36% of sales come from perishables. And the average digital ticket is higher than that of physical stores. All of this is based on data.”
The example, then, reinforces that data are not just reports, but drivers of structural decisions capable of redefining entire business models.
