a new coronavirus pandemic This forced small and medium-sized companies to realign themselves to tide over the crisis. According to a survey by Mastercard, the number of Brazilian companies moving to the digital environment increased by 208% in 2020 compared to transaction volume in 2019.
Worldwide, entry into the online medium was three times higher than pre-pandemic levels and peaked in July 2020. According to Mastercard, the increase reflects increased demand for a virtual sales channel, as well as a slight delay after the adoption of the lockdown.
“The move to digital has opened the door to the bright side of the pandemic: a resurgence of entrepreneurship and innovation,” says Bricklin Dwyer, chief economist at Mastercard. Now, he points out that the time has come for “bright opportunities” in the coming months.
With 19 economic markets in attendance, the report Recovery Insights: Small Business Reset shows that SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) sales lag behind larger companies by 20 percentage points at the worst moment of the pandemic.
However, small business spending improved in 2021 with a 4.5% increase in sales as of August 2021, with e-commerce sales growing 31.4% in the period.
According to the study, a third more small retailers opened their doors in 2020 than in 2019, which is almost 8 times more than large companies manufacturing. United Kingdom (+101%), United States (+86%), Australia (+73%), Germany (+62%), Canada (58%) and Brazil (+35%).
