In Colombia, the most important retailers are convenience stores. Small families own businesses that represent 52% of the mass consumer market. A tradition that goes back a hundred years which had never to be changed until 2020, when 23% of stores had to close during quarantine.

To help them, we digitized every store, in every corner, in every block, in every neighborhood, and connected them all in www.tiendacerca.com to create the most powerful online store. Customers just had to share their location and with a single click, place their orders through WhatsApp to their local grocer for daily provisions.

Due to the mandatory lockdowns determined during the worst moments of the pandemic, all the brick and mortar shops were forced to close their doors. For the big retailers, this meant an increase of sales in their e-commerce channels but for the most important retailers of Colombia, the small shops, things weren't so easy since digitalization, much less e-commerce platforms, was never part of their plans.

We needed to come with a solution that could help these small shops to get the attention of the consumers that were at home with the fear of going out. And we had to do it fast because during the first week 23% of the small shops were already closed.

Objectives:

Help small stores to be visible so that everyone knows they are still open and operating.

Register as many stores as possible in the shortest possible time, starting with those that are already our allies.

In March 2020, Colombian daily life radically changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Activities that could lead to crowds were limited and a restrictive quarantine that forced Colombians to stay at home was implemented indefinitely.

The traditional channel in Colombia weighs about 80% of the total volume of Bavaria and just the neighborhood stores make about 50% of that volume. During the COVID 19 crisis, these small businesses were precisely one of the most affected segments; in the first month of the pandemic more than 18% of the traditional channel establishments closed their doors completely and an additional 5% thought of closing their businesses (according to Meiko Latam) Given the relevance of this channel to our business, it was extremely important for Bavaria to work on a solution that could help mom-and-pop stores during these hard times.

We created a platform that helped mom and pop stores connect with their consumers through digital channels. Tienda Cerca gave visibility and boosted sales through the delivery service of local stores, becoming the most important hyper-local e-commerce, helping people with their grocery shopping while staying home and keeping safe during the pandemic crisis.

The platform helped mom and pop stores connect with their consumers through digital channels. Tienda Cerca gave visibility and boosted sales through the delivery service of local stores, becoming the most important hyper-local e-commerce, helping people with their grocery shopping while staying home and keeping safe during the pandemic crisis.

More than 60K stores registered in 3 months

Beer volume uplift of 8 points in clients that joined Tienda Cerca in the first 3 months.

Almost one million contacts generated between shopkeepers and consumers between April and May.

More than 15 allies joined the initiative in the first 3 months and made contributions of about 2 billion Colombian pesos to improve the infrastructure of the stores.

Expansion of the project to 9 countries in less than 6 months (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Paraguay, and the Dominican Republic)