ALMEIDA JUNIOR, a leading company in the shopping center industry in Southern Brazil, has just launched the first corporate marketplace for a company in this segment in Brazil, AJPLACE. The platform reunites on the online environment products of stores from the six shopping centers of the group in Santa Catarina, besides others of national and international brands which are not present yet on Almeida Junior shopping centers and in the state.
The project starts in Santa Catarina, but with the ambition to scale in the short term to all of Brazil with a focus on products from retailers in the South and Southeast regions.
AJPLACE debuts with more than 50 thousand products and has already hired another 90 thousand that will climb to the platform in the segments of fashion, beauty and health, technology, decoration and household appliances, gourmet food and pets. The launch campaign has as its ambassador of the project the greatest Santa Catarina idol: tennis player Gustavo Kuerten, who shows how to perform “a Guga” at AJPLACE.
In the last five years the company has been investing in digital transformation and the plan to have the marketplace online was accelerated this year. Recent research released by Clearsale points Brazil as one of the best markets for e-commerce this year. The average growth of the country is 22% and the projection for 2020 is that sales will reach US$ 16.7 billion.
With an eye on this trend, the Santa Catarina company, which has 71% market share in the state, made the marketplace viable in record time. AJ Comércio Digital was founded and today has 60 direct employees – the ajplacers – and is headed by CDO Flávia Altheman, in addition to the consultancy of German Quiroga, responsible for the digital transformation of large Brazilian companies.
“We hit the gas and in less than six months we completed the AJPLACE project. To do so, we hire people with proven experience and surround ourselves with the best national companies providing technology and logistics services. We are going live on the most important retail agenda – Black Friday and Christmas – with a pioneering sales platform in Brazil in the shopping center industry, inaugurating a unique corporate ecosystem with the digitalization of our tenants,” says Jaimes Almeida Junior, CEO of the shopping center chain.
“Unlike other marketplaces, the Santa Catarina company manages its own shopping centers focused on enchanting consumers and is now transferring this expertise to the online environment. For the shop owners, we are opportunizing the digitalization in a unique ecosystem – physical and online store”, adds the CEO of the company.
With shopping centers located in the main regions of Santa Catarina, from north to south of the state, the hub set up with interconnection in its own logistics between the six shopping centers will be one of the great differentials for those who buy from AJPLACE. The company has built delivery hubs and drive thru in the garages of all malls, and pick up points in the malls. The clients withdraw or receive the products in their homes in customized packaging in up to 24 hours for Santa Catarina and up to 3 days for other states.
ALMEIDA JUNIOR’s shopping centers get an average of 6 million people per month and strongly believe in the omnichannel journey of the consumer. For the customer, it is easy to purchase with one click – either through the website or the application available for Android and iOS with fast delivery and access to products from any of the malls, regardless of the city where you are.
For the almost 2,000 shop owners of ALMEIDA JUNIOR’s six malls, AJPLACE makes it possible to expand sales beyond the physical boundaries of the mall, without investment costs in e-commerce and marketing platforms. AJPLACE manages the entire process: catalog and stock, order management, logistics, contract with buyer with up to 12 installments to consumers and discount of receivables to shop owners at low costs, anti-fraud insurance and other essential services completing the entire cycle of online operation.
