Developed by VTEX, a leading e-commerce technology and software company, the new Carrefour.com platform will be the basis to scale and evolve the business in the short and long term. While providing an extremely positive shopping process for customers, Carrefour can continue to grow its operation, develop proprietary tools quickly, or advance with native tools from the partner company, enabling continuous operational innovation. The process also included other suppliers, which have been essential in delivering customized solutions to integrate the new operation.
The new e-commerce channel is much more resilient and adapts to the number of visits to the site, which have grown month on month. Data from the E-commerce Brasil ranking indicate that Carrefour's website was the seventh most visited site in September. Its structure remains active regardless of peak orders or volume transacted, a competitive advantage and, above all, a benefit for consumers. In periods of heavy use, such as Christmas, the system remains stable, and browsing is not impacted. As the number of visits increases, the system automatically becomes more robust to continue working.
In just eight months, Carrefour carried out the entire migration process to the new platform with a team of 150 people working entirely remotely. With high complexity and an active e-commerce operation, the company celebrates the results that consumers can already see. The entire customer purchasing process has been redesigned and optimized. In addition to allowing more personalized search, based on what the consumer usually buys, or on their preferences, the solution has integrated channel management, allowing customers to choose the most convenient option, whether by cost or time, to receive their product either at home or via pick-up services at 96 stores.
The platform provides optimized performance and mobile first, prioritizing the shopping experience in the channel most often used by consumers. With SmartCheckout™, credit card data used for a purchase is stored securely. This provides regular customers with one-click-buy, without the need to enter a password or card data again, delivering speed and convenience.
The new platform raises the bar for Carrefour, with customer-centric processes and decisions. Our consumers' omnichannel experience is not just a trend that we have followed, but the empowerment of consumers who want options in how to do their shopping. Furthermore, this is a significant step in Carrefour's growth plans in e-commerce, in line with the company's entire digitalization strategy in the country, which has been evolving rapidly in recent monthssays Paulo Farroco, IT Director at Carrefour.
As part of its digital ecosystem development, Carrefour is launching a new e-commerce platform. With modern solutions, the company is evolving in the fast integration of its internal and external systems to provide a unified experience for its millions of customers. The innovative Carrefour.com.br platform has positive impacts across the business, with high-level performance in order management, marketplace structure, and omnichannel services that connect the online operation to its bricks-and-mortar stores. The investment strengthens Carrefour Brasil Group's performance online and positions it for future growth.
Carrefour e-commerce sets a record
Over the years, Carrefour's e-commerce has become one of the main channels for purchases and has played a vital role in the last two quarters, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the second quarter of 2020, e-commerce saw impressive growth of 377% in food GMV, including its quick delivery service, and 65% in non-food sales, with a total of R$ 918 million in GMV, year on year. According to data from E-bit, the channel outgrew the market by 39% in the period.
Another significant milestone was growth in online food sales, which already accounts for 7.7% of all retail food sales, mainly in Sao Paulo and Curitiba, which showed a penetration rate of 14% and 19%, respectively, in June. Also, online sales of non-food products achieved excellent levels, accounting for 31.5% of total sales in this sector.
This whole evolution of Carrefour Brasil Group positions it on the same level as markets where the e-commerce operation, especially food, is very mature, as in European countries. This is the result of the company's strategy stated back in 2018, when the three strategic pillars of the Carrefour 2022 plan were launched, one of which was Digital Transformation, to make the chain an omnichannel benchmark, integrating its bricks-and-mortar and online stores, and investing in new technologies.