# **1. Introduction**

E-commerce is not a phenomenon that Colombians or Argentines only came to know during the pandemic. In 2019, 136 million annual transactions related to e-commerce were recorded in Colombia (Blacksip 2022), or an average of 2.7 transactions per person. The growth of e-commerce in Colombia was very high in the years prior to the pandemic, rising from 17 million transactions in 2014 to 136 million in 2019. The growth rate was higher than in the rest of the large countries in the Latin America region. In the case of Argentina, 89 million e- commerce purchase orders were made in 2019 (CACE 2020), or around 2 purchase orders per person. The growth of e-commerce in Argentina before the pandemic went through three phases: (i) an eruption in 20002005, with growth rates in the number of users and sales exceeding 50 percent; (ii) a consolidation in 20052015, during which the share of Argentines connected to the Internet who had tried e-commerce rose from 15 to 75 percent and year-on-year growth rates in sales adjusted for inflation remained above 25 percent; and (iii) a phase of relative stagnation in the years prior to the pandemic, probably due to limited economic growth.

Bogota and Buenos Aires are the most active e-commerce demand centers in Colombia and Argentina, respectively. In the case of Bogota, data reported by marketplaces such as Rappi show a share close to 60 percent in 2019 (Blacksip 2020), and Colombia's Quality of Life Survey (LCS) suggests that Bogota’s e-commerce adoption is double the national average. The highest volume of online orders in 2019 was concentrated in the northeastern localities of the city (i.e., Usaquén, Chapinero, and Teusaquillo), coinciding with a greater adoption of e-commerce among households of higher socioeconomic status. In comparison, while in 2010 almost 70 percent of Argentina’s online purchases were made in Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area (AMBA for its Spanish acronym), this share declined to around 40 percent in recent years, as other areas of Argentina increased e-commerce adoption, thus decreasing AMBA’s weight. Nevertheless, AMBA still concentrates a large part of e-commerce transactions, especially among everyday shoppers. The share of the City of Buenos Aires (CABA) households using the Internet who buy or sell products online rose from 16.9 percent to 31.4 percent in 2011-2018, while in the Province of Buenos Aires the increase was even greater in relative terms, almost tripling from 5.9 percent to 15.9 percent, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina (INDEC). Similarly to Bogota, in Buenos Aires e-commerce adoption is higher among higher-income households, with the gap in adoption rates between the highest and the lowest income groups widening over time. In 2011-2018, the e-commerce adoption rate among the lowest income decile households in CABA increased from nearly none to 12.5 percent, compared to an increase from 15 to 52 percent among the highest income decile.

COVID-19 introduced changes in travel patterns and disruptions in urban mobility, including due to a rise in e- commerce related trips. The mobility restriction and social distancing measures imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an increase of e-commerce at a global level. The growth of e-commerce may also change shopping-related travel demand patterns in the long run and generate additional freight vehicle trips for the delivery of online orders to consumers, which urban mobility planning should take into account. The current study aimed to leverage innovative data tools to analyze the growth of e-commerce during the pandemic in Bogota and Buenos Aires and its impacts on trip volumes. The specific objectives were: to characterize e- commerce demand in the two metropolitan areas and its evolution during the COVID-19 pandemic; to quantify the potential reduction in travel demand due to e-commerce; to quantify the weight of e-commerce in urban goods distribution flows; to identify whether the growth of e-commerce during the pandemic has resulted in a reduction in travel demand; and to identify whether the growth of e-commerce during the pandemic has resulted in an increase in urban goods distribution flows.

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