Enterpreneurial Strategies for the Female Sector: Leveraging Instagram Sales During the Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly influenced the purchasing behavior of consumers, who began to see in the tools available in the virtual environment the necessary allies to satisfy their consumption desires. Given the relevance achieved by the virtual environment, organizations began to explore more intensively the various digital platforms to enhance their reach to their customers. The traditional electronic commerce then evolved into what we call Social Commerce (S-commerce), which allowed a substantial increase in the way of interacting and promoting sales. Despite the limitations and incipient studies on how organizations use their strategies and explore digital media tools to leverage sales, it is perceived as relevant to understand how the process of joining these organizations to digital media and the influence they have passed to exercise in the reformulation of its strategies and business models. Focusing on the Instagram environment, the objective of this research is to characterize the sales strategies used by three female-owned enterprises, through Instagram, during the pandemic by COVID-19. As a methodological research strategy, the study of multiple cases was used. Three Brazilian female-owned enterprise were analyzed, being: a jewelry company, a women's adult footwear company and a beauty salon. The entrepreneurs responsible for the companies were submitted to a semi-structured questionnaire, which was conducted in loco. As a result, it was observed that the most used Instagram tools are feed resources, stories and metrics. On the other hand, the sales strategies most used by entrepreneurs were e-WOM, recommendations and feedbacks and, finally, encouraging user participation. In conclusion, it was noticed that both the entrepreneur and the company that wants to implement sales strategies in digital media, need to understand the functions and objectives of the set of tools made available by Instagram. Once the functionalities present in these resources are understood, entrepreneurs and managers can formulate their strategies in an assertive way, being more efficient in their commercial transactions, since the actions aim to promote involvement with the public that follows the business. Instagram proved to be a tool with great potential for business in the female sector.