Arcor en Casa

Introduction

Grupo Arcor is one of the largest food companies in Latin America, with regional operations and brands present across the main mass-consumption categories. Its commercial model runs through distributors: they manage inventory, territorial reach and last-mile delivery. In 2020, with lockdown in effect and the physical channel closed, that model became a constraint.

The underlying question was how to reach the end consumer without bypassing the distribution network, without losing territorial control and without missing the Easter sales window.

The problem

Arcor did not have a digital sales channel of its own, and the timeline did not allow for a standard implementation. The launch had to be ready in less than a month.

Any generic platform made it possible to sell, but none respected the existing commercial structure, and that structure was the condition that made the project possible. The model required orders initiated by the consumer but processed by the distributor in their area, with each distributor's own catalog, stock and prices; automatic geographic assignment by polygons, with no manual intervention; and payment collected directly by the distributor, not by Arcor. Without solving that, beyond losing sales at a critical moment, the brand risked creating friction with its own commercial network by competing against it.

The solution

We designed and implemented Arcor en Casa as a platform built from the business model outward. The foundation was open-source technology, but the architecture was fully custom.

The system integrated users, products, prices and stock in real time with Arcor's internal systems through a REST API. Checkout operated with each distributor's payment credentials through a multi-seller module on Mercado Pago, with a second payment method configurable by distributor. Geographic assignment was automatic: the system detected the buyer's location and assigned the right distributor before showing the available catalog.

The platform launched with pilot distributors three weeks after the project started and scaled to cover the national network. Over time it added features focused on conversion and operations: delivery scheduling, mass coupons, abandoned cart recovery, repeat purchases and synonym-based search, among others.

Beyond development, we kept a dedicated management team running the platform day to day: distributor support, pricing, promotions, monitoring and reporting, with biweekly releases and regular strategy meetings. That team is the reason the channel did not stop once the urgency had passed.

Results

After 18 months:

• 100,000 registered consumers

• 110,000 processed purchases

• $180 million in gross sales

• 1 million items sold

• 40% organic traffic

After 36 months, the platform consolidated its scale:

• 250,000+ registered consumers

• 200,000+ processed purchases

• $500 million in gross sales

• 1.5 million+ items sold

• 34% organic traffic

The operation also gained commercial depth: corporate benefit campaigns, configurations for seasonal events and reporting for business decisions. As external recognition, Arcor en Casa was distinguished at the eCommerce Award Argentina in 2021 and in later editions.

The figure that best measures the case is time: six years after that emergency launch, Arcor en Casa remains active and in constant evolution, with a team that operates it every day and a roadmap that keeps adding features, integrations and commercial actions. What was born to save one Easter became permanent infrastructure for Arcor's digital business.

Conclusion

Three weeks to launch is a hard number to repeat, but what makes this case a reference is that the technology was built to operate within a commercial network with decades of history and non-negotiable rules, and kept doing so for years. A digital channel that works is recognized precisely by that: years later, it is still running.