Digital Transformation in Ecuador COVID-19 Pandemic as an accelerator to E-Commerce

Abstract

Following the study on digital transformation that Ecuador has been experiencing in the first year of the COVID-2021 Pandemic, this report submits the growth prospect of e-commerce, marketing and digital advertising. This study is based on the quantitative data published by the metrics of digital communication that take as a starting point statistics gathered from the study of the World Internet Project. Which from the theoretical approach of the Human Ecology of Communication of Ecuador, seeks the endogenous and exogenous particularities of communication behavior in Ecuadorian society, explaining the accelerated process of digital transformation. Ecuador’s e-commerce growth of 54% reached 2.2 billion dollars in sales, compared to 2019, and with preference channels for purchases made by Whatsapp in 49%, Apps 44% and Websites 35%. The main volume of visits for e-commerce websites came from search engines 60,81%, direct visits 30,40% and social networks with 4,12% in 2020