Introduction

E-commerce adoption (ECA) in companies involves different degrees of using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to support management, business operations, and decision-making (^{Ghobakhloo et al., 2011}; ^{Aghamirian et al., 2015}). E-commerce represented 10.2% of total retail sales worldwide in 2017, according to Nielsen data (2018). Nevertheless, in the COVID-19 pandemic, online commerce has been driven by more companies and consumers seeking appropriate digital technologies (^{WHO, 2020}; ^{Ungerer et al., 2020}). The limitations and restrictions associated with lockdown and social distancing highlighted the value of digital solutions, no longer as alternatives but as the main option for buying, selling, and paying for goods and services.

Several studies point out that the massive application of digital technologies to marketing generates structural changes in consumption patterns (^{Cámara Argentina de Comercio Electrónico-CACE, 2021}; ^{Meltzer, 2018}; ^{World Economic Forum, 2017}). In recent years, digital transformation in the Latin American region has been heterogeneous, not only when considering the country of origin but also the size of the companies (^{Correa et al., 2018}). Nevertheless, the current pandemic requires immediate solutions to ensure the survival of many companies, especially SMEs (^{LACTLD, the Latin American and Caribbean Top Level Domain Organization, 2020}). For example, in the aftermath of the pandemic, the testing of several emerging technologies has accelerated. Such technologies are increasingly expected to accelerate the business sector’s recovery and drive new production and innovation cycles. The development of e-commerce and digital transformation are not only palliative solutions to the pandemic but offer significant opportunities to help countries in the region make up for the backwardness they have always suffered (^{LACTLD, 2020}).

Nevertheless, the adoption of ICTs by companies has not been easy during the pandemic and in many cases requires government support. In the case of developed countries such as the United States, many company managers could adapt to this digital market transformation to recover from the decline in their physical sales in the face of the pandemic or even to encourage higher sales in general (^{Kim, 2020}). For example, Walmart’s electronic sales or those from e-commerce increased by 74% in April 2020, despite the drop in physical retail sales (^{Redman, 2020}; ^{Nassauer, 2020}). Overall, in the US, e-commerce sales increased 141% each month of the first four months of 2020 versus an increase of less than 1% in physical commerce (^{Nassauer, 2020}).

In Latin America, more than ten million citizens who had never shopped online have begun doing so regularly through the Mercado Libre platform. According to data from Mercado Libre Mexico, with a presence in 18 countries, the number of buyers after the pandemic increased by 45.2%. Nevertheless, there are several countries in the region where only a small portion of the population has access to credit cards or some type of online payment method, which constitutes an obstacle to the development of e-commerce (^{LACTLD, 2020}). In turn, the main opportunity in the region to improve e-commerce lies in improving the delivery system. Postal delivery is the biggest infrastructure weakness of e-commerce in Latin America (^{UNCTAD, 2020}). In the particular case of Argentina, the UPU¹ postal reliability index barely reaches a value of 10, below other countries in the region, such as Brazil and Uruguay, and far below more developed countries.

In Brazil, data from the Brazilian E-Commerce Association indicate a 56.8% growth in online sales in 2020. Although large platforms such as Mercado Libre are the winners in this context, small businesses also manage to keep their clients or get new clients with more informal digital channels such as WhatsApp. For this retail sector, creating new business models driven by e-commerce in the Latin American region is not a viable option, and for many others, it remains an unknown option (^{Siemens, 2019}).

The digital gaps associated with organizational size continue to be evidenced by measurements of the quality of access to broadband connections and the availability of websites globally and in the Latin American region. While most SMEs in the region are connected, these are generally low- or medium-speed connections, in contrast to larger companies and advanced economies.

In Latin America, according to a study published by the International Labor Organization (^{ILO, 2020}), based on surveys conducted by the World Bank in 2018 among companies in the manufacturing and services sectors with more than 5 employees, 53% of small companies in the region do not have their own website, while this is the case for 32% of medium-sized companies. In addition, it is observed that 20% of small businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean do not have email, while this is the case for 5% of medium-sized companies.

By 2017, the percentage of companies with a website in Argentina was 89% for companies with more than 100 employees, 83% for companies with 20 to 99 employees, and 61% for companies with less than 20 employees (^{Dini et al.,2021}). On the other hand, according to data from ^{Correa et al. (2018)}, the percentage of companies with their own website in 2017 was 60%, 80%, and 90%, depending on whether they were small, medium, or large. In Argentina, over 95% of companies use email (^{ILO, 2020}). According to CACE data, 9 out of 10 Argentines have shopped online at least once, reflecting that confidence is growing and the market is more mature (^{CACE, 2022}). It is observed that 8 out of 10 sessions are carried out through mobile devices and that the category with the highest online sales in the face of the pandemic is food and beverages, followed by home, furniture, and gardening (^{CACE, 2020}). Mercado Pago stands out in payment methods, being chosen by 90.1% of Argentines who have purchased through this channel.

In Argentina, this increase in online shopping is also explained by the level of ICT adoption by the population. According to the 2017 National Survey of Cultural Consumption (ENCC) of the Cultural Information System of Argentina (SinCA), in Argentina 80% of the population is connected to the Internet, above the global average of 53%. Of those connected to the Internet, 93% do so through mobile phones. Facebook is the most popular social network in the country, with 64.4% of the population having an account, followed by Instagram and Twitter (with 27.3% and 13.2%, respectively). On the other hand, according to the Business to Consumer² (B2C) Index for 2019 published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Argentina ranks 85th in the world, with an index value of 50 (50% of the population conducts B2C), slightly above the average for Latin America, which was 48 for that year. Nevertheless, the value of this index for the country is below the world average (55) and significantly lower than that of developed countries (87).

After a review of the literature, no studies have been found in Argentina that explore the level of companies’ adoption of different digital channels in the context of the pandemic or that analyze the role of local governments in assisting the business sector during health and economic crises. Accordingly, this work makes an empirical contribution to comprehending the reality of local and national companies in a critical context.

From the data obtained from the DesdeCasa platform, an index is constructed that measures the level of the digital readiness of some companies in Bahía Blanca to face the pandemic through e-commerce based on the availability and use of different digital channels. It is not an ex-post index since the data collected was at the beginning of the pandemic, which is still ongoing and has not been eradicated.

The paper is structured as follows. First, a review of the literature is conducted to find background information on technological adoption by companies, e-commerce adoption, digital platforms, and an analysis of the situation in Latin American countries in the context of the pandemic. Next, the applied methodology of Principal Component Analysis (CPA) is described and framed within the objectives of the study. Then, the results obtained by constructing the digitalization index by factor analysis are presented. Finally, the work’s conclusions, limitations, and implications are presented.

The case of the DesdeCasa platform in Bahia Blanca

In the case of the Municipality of Bahía Blanca, measures have also been carried out to provide solutions to the economic activity of merchants, entrepreneurs, SMEs, and local companies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bahía Blanca is one of the five cities in Argentina with the highest percentage of households connected to the Internet. In this city, 62% of the population has access to a computer at home, and the percentage of the population with Internet access at home is 84%, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina (INDEC) for the third quarter of 2020. In particular, the Innovation Laboratory LAB BAHIA GOB, together with the business consulting firm NexoSmart IT, entrepreneurs and citizens, the Polo Tecnológico del Sur, chambers of commerce, trade unions, and universities, designed the DesdeCasa platform, which allows users to find in a simple and agile way the products and services offered online by some companies in the city.

This initiative originated in the Innovation Laboratory of the Municipality of Bahía Blanca, with the participation of technological entrepreneurs and professors from the Computer Science Department of the Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS). Through this platform, local businesses and companies are connected with potential buyers, and the possibility of home delivery of the product is offered. By the end of April 2020, 1 114 businesses and 1 196 vehicles were registered for door-to-door delivery. Nexo Smart, a young business IT consulting company, was responsible for the technological development of the platform, which was designed free of charge. In turn, UNS Computer Science Department volunteers were responsible for supporting the help desk created to guide platform users and answer their questions.

The DesdeCasa platform has the participation of more than 1 400 companies from different sectors. For practical purposes, the platform functioned as a directory of local companies, with information on the products and services offered, geographical location, and availability of digital channels for contact and interaction. A priori, the size of the companies registered on the DesdeCasa platform, in terms of number of employees or turnover, is unknown. Nevertheless, considering that about 74% of the registered companies do not have a website, these data suggest that most companies are not large. According to the literature, most large companies have their own website, although this may vary by sector and activity.

On the other hand, the Polo Tecnológico del Sur has collaborated in training and enabling merchants and entrepreneurs to learn about e-commerce and digital sales tools. On the other hand, the municipality has also complemented the platform’s service with training for entrepreneurs on e-commerce and Internet sales with the support of professors from the Economics Department of the Universidad Nacional del Sur. Nevertheless, no data on traffic and transactions, such as the number of visits received, sales made, or interaction with buyers, were recorded.

Theoretical framework

The adoption of ICT by companies is an evolutionary and dynamic process that requires certain minimum levels of technological infrastructure, knowledge, and organizational skills as a starting point. Throughout this process, the necessary actions are identified in terms of technological solutions, knowledge, and resources needed to increase productivity and move to higher levels of maturity as experience is gained in adopting more complex technologies (^{Peirano & Suárez, 2006}; ^{Kotelnikov, 2007}; ^{Rivas & Stumpo, 2011}).

E-commerce has become important for small and medium-sized companies as a channel and tool to enter or remain in the market. Digital channels enhance the possibilities of designing commercial strategies based on the knowledge of the preferences of clients and prospects, facilitate the personalization of proposals, and favor loyalty (^{Choshin Ghaffari, 2017}; Kurniawati & Siddiq., 2020). Nevertheless, their successful implementation is conditioned by several internal and external factors to organizations (^{Tambunan, 2020}; ^{Choshin Ghaffari, 2017}). Accordingly, for example, entrepreneurs’ perceptions of the potential benefits of e-commerce (^{Poorangi et al., 2013}), as well as their commitment to strategically manage the factors that enable or facilitate its successful adoption, such as the different channels through which it is conducted (websites, apps), after-sales service and delivery time, the reputation of the company, and the type of product (^{Jones et al., 2016}; ^{Vázquez Esquivel, 2019}), are of great importance.

Social commerce can be considered an extension of e-commerce, using social networks as communication and marketing channels. Social networks are digital channels of an interactive nature that help companies to have a market presence, extend and strengthen contacts with clients and suppliers, provide customer services, and, more recently, support online marketing and sales (Wang et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2017). The number of businesses using social networks to promote products and services has grown rapidly (Han et al., 2018). Social commerce, which arises from the combination of e-commerce and Web 2.0 or participatory web, is mainly used to support the various interactions and contributions that occur between users in the processes associated with the purchase of goods and services online (^{Liang & Turban, 2011}; Turban et al., 2011). Accordingly, considering the large number of participating members and their ease of use, social networks are positioned as a tool with great potential for e-commerce in creating value for companies. They are channels where clients do not limit themselves to consuming but also participate in opinions and exchanges. Therefore, companies want to capture their economic value (^{Alderete & Jones, 2019a)}. On the other hand, a study by ^{García et al. (2017)} concludes that, among Spanish SMEs, Facebook is the most used social network, although only half of the companies in the sample analyzed used social networks as a communication channel. In other words, a testimonial type of use of social networks by the companies is evident since they seek to favor positioning in search engines rather than to provide a space for dialogue with clients, which is why very poor levels of engagement are generally observed (^{García et al., 2017}).

Institutional theory indicates that governments play a critical role in creating an institutional environment that promotes private investment and e-commerce in particular (^{Oxley & Yeung, 2001}). ^{Lip-Sam and Hock-Eam (2011)} and ^{Jeon et al. (2006)} found that government support for SMEs was effective for e-commerce adoption at all levels. Government measures to promote e-commerce range from training entrepreneurs and promoting e-commerce to investments in telecommunications, imposing fair taxes for online transactions, etcetera.

Digital platforms are important drivers of the Internet economy and have developed in different sectors, helping to drive business innovation and increase efficiency and productivity for companies, including MSMEs. Platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, and Mercado Libre create value by facilitating the encounter between buyers and sellers of the most varied items (^{ECLAC, 2018}). Built on shared and interoperable infrastructures, they are data-intensive and promote efficiency in digital processes, providing secure solutions to conduct online transactions. Others, such as PayPal and Mercado Pago, connect retailers with consumers for electronic payments (^{World Economic Forum, 2017}).

A feature of digital platforms is the generation of network effects: their value depends directly on the number of users in their different categories. Furthermore, they collect large amounts of market data that enable the analysis of sales trends in general and specific terms by category, product, area, segment, consumer profiles, etcetera. The personal and non-personal data recorded from interactions enable them to generate more value for their users by improving the personalization of services (^{European Commission, 2016}). At the same time, they provide companies with significant savings of money and effort in technological infrastructure by lowering the barriers to entry into e-commerce (^{Yadav et al., 2022}), reducing the cost of transactions and communication and marketing efforts, and accelerating and boosting market penetration.

On the other hand, this process of e-commerce adoption by companies results in different levels or degrees of complexity. ^{Molla and Likert (2005)} propose different levels of ECA based on the characteristics of the institutional websites of each company. Thus, ECA reaches level 0 when the company has no website of its own, level 1 when the website is informative, level 2 when the website is interactive, and level 3 when the website is transactional. Companies with an informative website (low) only conduct the institutional presentation and provide access to a product/service catalog. The companies in level 2 (medium) have some type of interaction with clients and prospects, such as online consultations or through forms, consultation of budgets, and reception of online orders/reservations from clients. The companies with an ECA level 3 (high) have a website that enables the conducting of transactions with clients and suppliers, a shopping cart, online payment, order tracking, online sales and after-sales services, and access to suppliers’ extranet, among others.

In the case of Argentina, several works (^{Alderete & Jones, 2019a}; ^2019b; ^{Alderete et al., 2017}; Jones, 2017; ^{Jones et al., 2013}) have contributed to the knowledge of the state of the art of e-commerce in the country and, therefore, in the Latin American region. ^{Alderete and Jones (2019a)} conduct a taxonomy of companies in terms of e-commerce. Based on an analysis of average k clusters, they obtain three groups of companies according to the perceived value of digital channels for their business: companies advanced in e-commerce and social commerce, with transactional websites and high activity in social networks; companies operating only in social networks that assign a low value to the contribution of these channels; and e-commerce-oriented companies, with non-transactional websites and a presence in social networks, although their valuation of these channels is low. These groups, in turn, show significant differences by sector of activity but not by company size.

Accordingly, the web alone is not a sufficient instrument to generate value. A successful outcome in these terms requires that users/clients have an active, collaborative participation and generate quality content for users. On the other hand, companies must constantly engage in social interaction, a situation known as engagement (^{García et al., 2017}). Companies must participate with the public and experiment with them, empathizing with users to build loyalty (García, 2015). In this last aspect, social networks play a fundamental role.

Methodology

When the work began, the companies included in the DesdeCasa directory were 1 284 (July 2020). Each company adds its business to the directory by completing the requested information. Since approximately 90 categories or activity items were registered, the aim was initially to reduce and homogenize the categories to simplify the analysis; 18 categories were defined. Then, the information provided by each company regarding the availability of digital channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Own website, and the level of adoption of e-commerce (ECA) was explored. While the website variable determines the possibility of accessing e-commerce, ECA indicates the level of e-commerce achieved by the companies.

To define the levels of ECA, the websites of the companies registered on the platform that indicated having a web page were examined. To this end, the methodology of previous works on the subject was followed (^{Alderete and Jones, 2019a}, ^2019b; ^{Alderete et al., 2017}; ^{Jones et al., 2016}; ²⁰¹³;), which only considers in the definition of e-commerce internet sales through the company’s institutional website. These works take as a reference ^{Molla and Likert (2005)}, who propose different levels of ECA, considering the degree of complexity of this. Consequently, this variable does not contain information on using social networks as a sales channel (social commerce) or on using marketplaces such as Mercado Libre.

On the other hand, the presence or performance in Argentina’s most popular social networks, Facebook and Instagram, was recorded for each company through dichotomous variables. On the other hand, although the directory collected information on the companies’ WhatsApp, it was not included as a variable in the digitalization index since all the companies registered had this communication channel without variability being perceived in this factor. Then, with this information, a digitalization index of the companies is compiled using factor analysis.

Factor Analysis (FA) is a multivariate statistical analysis technique of interdependence whose fundamental purpose is to reduce the dimensions of a set of observed variables to define the most parsimonious underlying variable’s structure. In FA, the observed variables are reduced by fewer unobserved variables, called factors (latent variables) plus error expressions. Principal component analysis (PCA) aims to find a set of factors that explain the total variance of the original variables as much as possible. PCA is a dimension reduction technique that describes the information of a set of observed variables using a set of smaller variables (principal components) that are linear combinations of the starting variable and uncorrelated. Unlike FA, PCA does not assume that there is an underlying common factor among the variables. This method is based on constructing a linear combination from the original variables, such that the first principal component found is a combination that explains the largest proportion of the sample variance, the second, the second largest proportion of the variance, and that, in turn, is not correlated with the first and so on. In this way, the factor or component found enables capturing the greatest variability and information of the variables through the principal components method (^{Ferrando & Anguiano Carrasco, 2010}).

Then, the weighted sum of the components is found to obtain an overall indicator, where the weighting arises from the participation of the variance of each component in the accumulated total. Given that these components are divergent values, which can adopt negative values, the index is normalized to obtain values between 0 and 1. Once the digitalization index has been determined, contingency tables are used to analyze whether there is a relation between the digitalization index, the type of activity developed or category, and the product’s shipping capacity.

Results

After regrouping the original categories into the most aggregated and homogeneous categories possible, the following results were obtained: The 18 defined categories are: 1) healthy - gluten-free food; 2) food in general; 3) grocery - self-service; 4) personal care - aromatherapy; 5) nurseries - veterinaries, and others; 6) furniture - decoration; 7) household appliances - hardware, and others; 8) restaurants - breweries, and others; 9) clothing - footwear, and accessories; 10) computers - electronics, and others; 11) vehicles - auto parts; 12) graphic industry - printing; 13) construction materials and others; 14) pharmacy - perfumeries; 15) bookstores - party accessories - toy stores; 16) sports - tourism, and others; 17) architecture - design - gardening; 18) cleaning.

From the characterization of the companies according to the 18 established categories, a predominance of category 9, clothing - footwear, and accessories, and category 10, computers - electronics, and others, with 30.8% and 13.2% of the sample, respectively, can be observed. The least numerous categories are architecture - design - gardening, with 1.5% of the companies. Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of the variables that make up the digitalization index.

Next, the sample is characterized according to the variables used jointly to construct the digitalization index. Regarding ECA, it is observed that most companies (73%) do not have an institutional or proprietary website. Of the 1 284 companies, only 26.6% have their own website. Regarding the ECA variable, out of the total sample, 3.2% of the companies are at an informative level, 8.9% at an interactive level, and 14.5% at a transactional level (Table 1). Notably, among the 341 companies with a website, the most advanced level of ECA predominates since 186 (54%) have a transactional site.

If only online sales and purchases through this medium are analyzed, 27% of the registered companies have their own website, although only 14.5% can make online sales through this medium since they have a shopping cart, among other transactional features.

Regarding social networks, unlike websites, this digital channel is more widespread among companies since 80% of them have a presence on social networks (either Facebook or Instagram). In particular, 58.7% have Instagram, and 60% have Facebook. From this perspective, the results coincide with those of ^{Alderete and Jones (2019a)}, where the proportion of companies with a presence in social networks was very high, given the ease and affordability of access. Nevertheless, in that study it is pointed out that the presence in social networks does not necessarily imply an added business value for companies. On the other hand, 17% of the companies registered in the directory do not have digital channels, i.e., neither their own website nor a presence on social networks (Table 3).

To analyze the level of correlation between presence in social networks and ECA, i.e., whether it is to be expected that companies that are present in social networks also adopt more advanced levels of EC, the average level of ECA is analyzed according to whether or not they have a presence in social networks.

These differences in ECA are statistically significant according to the ANOVA test (p>0.000). Companies not on social networks also have low to no e-commerce, while companies with a presence on social networks have medium/high levels of e-commerce. It should be noted that there are 5 missing cases regarding the information presence on social networks.

Then, considering the relation between ECA and social networks, the companies are classified according to the typology proposed by ^{Alderete and Jones (2019a)}. Unlike these authors, who measured the Likert scale value assigned to social networks, only information on their presence or absence in social networks is available. Thus, the following characterization of the sample is conducted.

Accordingly, the results differ from ^{Alderete and Jones (2019a)}, since the categories presented by these authors covered all the companies analyzed. In this case, the category “companies with website only” is added: those with a presence on the Internet but do not have social networks. Outside this typology are the companies with no presence in any digital channels. According to Table 3, there are 221 companies, which together with the 1 058 give a total of 1 279 companies.

Following the typology of ^{Alderete and Jones (2019a)}, of the total number of companies that have some digital channel (Table 5), 16.54% of the companies have an advanced level of e-commerce since they have social networks and have a high level of ECA (transactional site). On the other hand, 12.57% have social networks, but a medium or low level of ECA (informative/interactive website), which leads to a level of orientation toward e-commerce. Finally, of this total, 67.86% are only present on social networks, thus registering a zero ECA level.

Some companies without a website will likely conduct e-commerce through social networks and channels such as WhatsApp or Mercado Libre-type portals. Accordingly, ^{Liang and Turban (2011)} argue that the level of exploitation that companies conduct on the Internet and social networks will depend on the definition of effective strategies and the allocation of resources necessary for managing social networks and other digital channels. Nevertheless, no such information is currently available to corroborate this, and it is beyond the scope of this paper.

Conclusions

The current health crisis caused by the new coronavirus pandemic has harmed the economy in general and SMEs in particular. The context of the health and economic crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic put the economy and the survival of many companies at risk. Nevertheless, e-commerce has registered unprecedented growth rates at the global and national levels, offering a solution for the survival of many companies. Indeed, significant growth rates in online sales were recorded worldwide during the pandemic. Studies and measurements by various national e-commerce players and international organizations suggest that the pandemic has led to changes in consumer habits and behavior. On the one hand, new online shoppers increased; on the other hand, the ranking of categories of products and services most sold through digital channels was altered. Several authors state that many of these changes will persist after the COVID-19 context has passed.

On the other hand, the governments of many countries have promoted support measures through policies and programs to encourage the adoption of e-commerce by companies. These programs include, among others, the development of e-commerce portals and platforms, training programs, counseling, and linkage. In the face of this event, several local initiatives have been developed in Argentina to collaborate with the development of ICT-mediated commerce. In the municipality of Bahía Blanca, the online directory DesdeCasa supports local businesses and is a valuable service for the population. This study enables the companies that participated in this platform to be characterized through a digitalization index considering the level of e-commerce adoption and presence on the most popular social networks.

The results show that approximately 74% of the companies that joined the DesdeCasa platform do not have a website. On the other hand, 19.7% of the companies do not have any social networks. Nevertheless, most of the companies use WhatsApp as a means of communication and interaction with clients. The percentage of the most disadvantaged companies having neither a website nor a presence on social networks is 17.2%. For this segment, the DesdeCasa platform mainly constituted an alternative linking instrument with the medium.

Nevertheless, there are no data on the results of this link. In other words, there is no record of the number of visits obtained through the directory or the sales volume made through it. It would have been interesting to analyze whether the platform enabled the companies to advance in e-commerce. A survey in this regard is planned for the future.

In order to assess the state of affairs of companies in Bahía Blanca in terms of digitalization of sales channels to cope with the pandemic, an index is created that collects information on presence on social networks (Facebook and Instagram), availability of own website and level of e-commerce adoption (ECA). After constructing the index by principal component analysis, an average of 0.37 is obtained in the companies’ digitalization index (DI). The DI is highest in item 6, corresponding to home decoration and furniture, followed by item 10 (computers - electronics, and others) and item 1 (healthy - gluten-free food). The differences in the DI by category are statistically significant.

In turn, it is observed that there are statistically significant differences in the level of e-commerce between companies that have a presence on social networks and those that do not. That is, companies with a presence on Facebook or Instagram have a higher level of ECA than companies not on social networks. The greater use of digital channels during the pandemic by certain items had to do not only with a higher rate of digitalization but also with greater maturity in the adoption of e-commerce since the association between ECA and greater shipping capacity is another indicator that reinforces the findings that these company items had a priori a better preparation for e-commerce. These are companies with a greater awareness of the value of e-commerce to businesses that generate value through digital channels, internet presence, and professionalizing their digital channels. Thus, it is possible to deduce the existence of a positive relation between the digitalization index, online sales, and shipping capacity.

The role of local government has been to facilitate contact between local businesses and clients. Although it is impossible to corroborate, due to lack of data, whether the directory has increased sales, at least it has acted as a promoter for disseminating the contact information of the registered companies. Promotion is undoubtedly important, as are training, technical and financial assistance.

It is worth clarifying that the results only represent the population of companies registered on the DesdeCasa platform, not the total number of companies in the city. On the other hand, there is a great heterogeneity of activity categories, and no information was obtained regarding the main type of activity, be it industry, commerce, or services, although the platform was intended for businesses.