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ARCHIVED - Seville markets emulate Amazon to try to attract new buyers
Seville will be the first capital city in Andalucia to implement the online shopping tool
The Mercado de Feria is an iconic food market in Seville which draws locals and residents keen to bag a bargain each day. The cafés, bars and restaurants that surround the fresh produce stalls and independent stores are also packed in the afternoons and evenings, but hardly a person can be seen in the area in the mornings.
“In the afternoon many people come to the catering businesses, in fact the shops that face the street take the opportunity to open, but those inside remain closed. In addition, tourism in this area has dropped a lot, which before the pandemic meant practically 80% of the buyers who passed through here,” explains Andrea Buenorro, president of the merchants of the Mercado de Feria.
In addition, most of the orders made during the day are over the phone so that the market itself remains deserted as consumers choose instead to shop at the ‘express’ supermarkets in the area which offer speed and convenience, albeit at higher prices.
Now, taking a leaf out of Amazon’s highly successful book, the Seville City Council has earmarked 595,100 euros to launch an online platform for the district’s markets, where customers can place their orders online and choose between in-store pick-up and home delivery. It’s hoped that this electronic shopping option will help reach a younger audience and modernise local businesses.
The online shopping platform will be launched at six markets from April 2023 and will be rolled out to the rest during 2024.
The first markets to benefit from the platform will be Tiro de Línea, Pino Montano, Encarnación, Feria, Triana and Las Palmeritas and as an added bonus, shoppers will be able to select produce from several different stalls in the same order. This not only gives customers far more choice, but will also reduce carbon emissions by cutting down on the number of delivery vans needed.
Once it’s up and running, the mercadosdesevilla.es website will become the first in any of Andalucia’s capital cities to pilot such a scheme. Only time will tell if shoppers will take to buying their fruit online from a local seller, or whether it will be flop.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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