A pandemia do Covid-19 e a integração entre comércio físico e eletrônico nos pequenos varejos de Santa Cruz do Sul.

Abstract

The expansion of e-commerce or s-commerce during the coronavirus pandemic was a response that many micro and small companies had to use to continue operating in an environment of great economic uncertainty, lockdowns and social distance promoted to contain contamination. The objective of this research was to understand how the pandemic affected micro and small retail companies in Santa Cruz do Sul, what were the difficulties faced and what were the opportunities found, in order to understand the strategic relationships between e-commerce platforms and physical commerce. The theoretical basis was structured from the theory of contingency and reactive strategies resulting from changing business environments. The methodology used was the study of multiple cases, defined as typical cases, as they are more suitable for the investigation and understanding of social, individual, political and organizational phenomena. The content analysis of the interviews used the thematic analysis method with a deductive approach. The response given by micro and small companies was to adapt to the business environment and implement reactive strategies to continue operating. Among the reactive strategies adopted by companies in Santa Cruz do Sul is the adoption of e-commerce and the use of social networks to enable the continued marketing of their products and ensure that the company continued to earn, even in periods when they could not open the doors of physical commerce.