No abstract

This case study is centered within the social, economic and cultural environment in which Inca Foods operates. Its main focus lies in the unexpected and enormous opportunity of doing business with the community of Peruvian expatriates residing in different parts of the world.

Este trabajo examina los factores asociados con la adopción del comercio electrónico y la relación entre estos factores y el grado de implementación de esta tecnología en empresas medianas en el Perú. Lo hace a partir de la evidencia empírica proporcionada por empresas que representan experiencias exitosas de uso del comercio electrónico. Asimismo, como respuesta a la necesidad de emplear una unidad de medida diferente de la binaria adopta/no adopta para establecer el grado de implementación de la tecnología de comercio electrónico, esta investigación presenta una propuesta de medición que considera cuatro dimensiones: volumen, diversidad, amplitud y profundidad. El marco de análisis proviene de la teoría de la difusión de innovaciones

This chapter describes the evolution of electronic commerce at Inca Foods, the largest supermarket chain in Peru. In 1997, it launched its virtual store as an additional way to improve customer service. The new service represented a challenge to the firm because Peru has a low Internet penetration rate and Peruvian people are used to shopping only in stores through face-to-face interactions. However, an unanticipated consequence of going online has been the response Inca Foods has been getting from Peruvian communities overseas. Because of the difficult economic situation in Peru, many people have left the country in search for new opportunities. Most of these people regularly send money to support their families in Peru. Now, Inca Foods provides them with an alternative way to do that. Inca Foods expects to achieve a high level of sales through this channel and is getting ready for it. This will help the firm to consolidate its leading position in the market, and it will constitute a new model for physical distribution of goods sold worldwide through the Web.