Supply and demand are the norm online, but they are also a warning about the competitive conditions faced by local businesses and entrepreneurs.
E-commerce is taking off in Ecuador. The efforts of local stores, however, are unable to compete with the prices of international platforms that this year have become the most downloaded apps locally.
Supply and demand are imposed online, but they are also a warning about the conditions for competition that Ecuadorian companies and entrepreneurs have and they warn about it. It is not about putting obstacles to the possibility of low international prices, but about looking for the methodology that allows competing on equal terms.
For Ecuadorian producers, even power cuts are a competition problem these days. However, the opportunities for e-commerce worldwide are evident and the government and the unions must speed up the processes that allow them to be taken advantage of.
Experts recommend promoting specific local products that are in demand abroad. Visualizing agricultural production with added value that has a powerful possibility of online sales. We must bet on the country’s strengths, compete with what we are good at and train in what there are limitations.
In a series published by this newspaper about the Temu, Amazon, Shein, and other platforms, the executive director of the Ecuadorian-Chinese Chamber, María Lissette Albán, points out that the e-commerce structure that is used in many countries is not yet in Ecuador.
But the association “always organizes events of this type with experts that we bring from China in e-commerce platforms, to support entrepreneurs and local companies so that they can not only buy. The objective and challenge is that we can sell through platforms of this type,” she says.
Indeed, the challenge for the public and private sectors is to position Ecuador in electronic commerce. Our market cannot afford to look the other way.
