Americanas SA

BOVESPA:AMER3

Earnings Call Transcript

[Operator]

Good afternoon, and welcome to the conference call of Americanas S.A. and Lojas Americanas for the 2021 Earnings Results. With us today are Mr. Miguel Gutierrez, CEO of Americanas S.A.; Anna Saicali; Timotheo Barros; and Marcio Cruz, CEOs of the platforms, as well as Fabien Picavet; and Raoni Lapagesse, Investor Relations Directors. This event is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] [Operator Instructions] As well, please remember that today's event presentation can be accessed at ri.americanas.com.

Forward-looking statements made during this conference call regarding business prospects, projections and operating and financial targets are based on beliefs and assumptions of the company's management, as well as information currently available. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they refer to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur.

Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operational factors may affect the future performance of Americanas and may lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. The company would like to stress that the accounting information that serve as a basis for comments are presented in compliance with the International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS, with the standards issued by Brazilian Securities Commission, CVM and in BRL s.

Now I will give the floor to the CEO of Americanas S.A., who will begin the presentation. Mr. Miguel, you may begin.

[Miguel Gomes Pereira Gutierrez, executive]

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. We have a lot to talk about relative to 2021. It was a historical year for the company. But first, I'd like to share with you some information and some thoughts about the moment we're all going through right now. As informed in recent announcements to the market, we were victims of a security incident between February 19 and 20, and our eCommerce environments needed to be taken offline to ensure security for our customers, suppliers and partners.

During this period, the physical stores remained open, as well as the logistics operations, which continued to deliver orders placed before the event. To deal with the situation, we called up on world-renowned specialists and with knowledge of similar situations. Together with our internal team and our security partners are now working to address and investigate this incident. On Wednesday, the 23rd, we started to gradually restore our eCommerce environments with an eye at the much-needed health and safety protocols. However, to fully investigate and understand the incidents, the investigation will go on for the coming weeks. There is no evidence of further damage other than the fact that our eCommerce operations have been lifted.

Right now, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank our team, our partner companies and safety and security specialists, who have worked to the best of their ability and continue to work nonstop. Also to explore this opportunity, I would like to thank all the support manifestations coming from clients, suppliers, sellers, the IT community, the retail community, the financial community and of society as a whole. Together, we work with the purpose of putting together or combining all that is good in the world to improve people's lives.

Now let's talk about 2021. 2021 is a watershed in the history of Americanas. And the fourth quarter of 2021 is but the first chapter of a new journey, one company for clients and investors. We already have an important results to share. The combination of operations, there are no longer any barriers to prevent the migration from one platform to the other. And at a time when the whole market sees the cost of customer acquisition go up, being able to "fish in our own fishbowl sets us apart". Today, monthly, more than 1 million downloads of our app are taking place, which reflects the correct combination between physical and digital operations.

With a more integrated company, we have met our commitments to speed up and grow total sales at a level above market, maintaining a healthy level of profitability and also generating cash. Achieving that in a year amidst such a challenging macroeconomic scenario is no easy task. The combination of operations, which has improved customer experience is the main driver to explain such performance. But we also attribute this good result to our model, a model of wide assortment and a focus on offering greater convenience to our customers.

So I'd like to invite Fabien and Raoni to conduct our presentation and talk about our numbers.

[Fabien Picavet, executive]

Thank you, Miguel. Good afternoon. My name is Fabien Picavet, and I'll start the presentation with the highlights on Slide #4. In the quarter, we reached 51 million active customers, which represents an addition of 5 million new customers in the past 12 months. In this period, the number of transactions exceeded 427 million, an increase of 108 million in the year, with the number of transactions growing faster than the customer base shows that the customers are increasingly recurring. In this quarter, we also reported for the first time an impressive number of items sold through our platforms on -- in 2021, more than 1.5 billion items were sold, up 400 million items in compared to the previous year.

As for assortment, we have exceeded 137 million items available on our platforms, adding more than 50 million items in 1 year. We also have evolved in the number of sellers connected to our marketplace, reaching the level of 122,000 in the fourth quarter. We continue to increase our footprint to be even closer to our customers. In 2021, we inaugurated -- opened 168 new stores. In 2021 was also marked by a major M&A move, which will be detailed on Slide #5. Our growth strategy combines organic growth of our own platforms and inorganic growth through strategic acquisitions to expand our reach, our businesses and our brands. Last year, the company made 7 moves in that direction. Shipp, Uni.co, Nexoos, OOOOO, Hortifruti Natural da Terra, Skoob and Vem Conveniencia. All those transactions contributed to speed up our growth, bringing knowledge, talent, innovation, new verticals and tech solutions, which have considerably expanded the consumer journey and also our reach.

In the fourth quarter, after all the necessary regulatory approvals, we effectively began to integrate the Hortifruti Natural da Terra operations. In addition, on December 30, CADE approved the joint venture with Vibra to bring together BR Mania stores and Local stores, creating the Vem Conveniencia chain. With those operations, we will reach more than 3,500 stores spread across the country, twice as much as December 2020 and with the potential to deliver a strong expansion plan in the coming years.

On Slide #6, we will talk about Americanas S.A. Americanas S.A. new journey to maximize value started with the combination of Lojas Americanas and B2W, which was approved last June, really focused on optimizing customer experience. Considering the successful operational combination of those businesses, an opportunity to incorporate was emerged, consolidating the shareholder basis of the companies on the new market in Novo Mercado. To make that new step possible, the former controlling shareholder became a reference shareholder with 30% of the capital of Americanas S.A., giving up control without charging any premium for doing so. With the consolidation of the shareholder basis, which was approved in December, we have simplified the corporate structure, and now we have one single Americanas, both for clients and investors.

On Slide 8, we will present the financial highlights for the fourth quarter and the year 2021. For the quarter, our total GMV reached BRL 18.1 billion, up 28.3%. For the year, total GMV reached BRL 55.3 billion, a growth of 32.8%. Online GMV, which is the sum total of GMV Partners and gross digital revenue reached BRL 13.3 billion in the quarter, and GMV [ for sellers ] grew 40.6% in the quarter, reaching the level of BRL 7.3 billion. For the year, the online GMV reached BRL 42.2 billion, an expansion of 43.6% and the for sellers GMV grew 45.1% reaching BRL 23.1 billion. The physical platform recorded a growth of 10.7% in Q4 2021, and on a same-store basis, the gross revenue from physical stores grew 4.1% in the quarter. For the year, growth was 7%, and on a same-store basis, gross revenue grew by 4.6%.

On Slide #9, we highlight the healthy combination of profitability and cash generation. In the quarter, adjusted EBITDA reached BRL 1.1 billion with an EBITDA margin of 11.8%, same level as the previous year or the previous quarter rather. For the year, adjusted EBITDA reached BRL 3.3 billion, and EBITDA margin was 12%. Net income for the quarter was BRL 489.7 million, including the reversal of the deferred income tax provision. For the year, net profit was record reaching BRL 730.9 million. For the quarter, cash generation was BRL 2 billion, and on December 31, the net cash position reached BRL 1.8 billion.

On Slide 10, we highlight some benefits already observed with the rapid combination of those businesses. There are no longer any barriers preventing migration from one platform to the other, and being able to fish in our own fishbowl, as I said, is a big advantage. The combination of operations, we were able to give a new boost to what we call O2I (sic) [ O2O ] online to offline. This was made possible by the intensive use of data intelligence which supported online were stores. In addition to more ship from store to over 890 cities in the use of dark stores, so that customer could receive their merchandise immediately after purchase also reducing the cost of freight. Thus, in the quarter, 24% of deliveries were made within 3 hours. In December alone, more than 2 million orders were delivered from our stores.

Now I'll turn the conference over to Raoni, who will continue the presentation.

[Unknown]

Thank you, Fabien. Good afternoon, everyone. In addition to advances in O2O, as mentioned before by Fabien, represent opportunities that are already being captured with the operational mix. To name a few completed initiatives, we have moved forward with the unification of inventories, optimizing management and improving allocation of resources, which allows us to advance O2O. We also unified communication, optimizing contact with customer and expanding the reach of Americanas brand across all platforms. We have concluded the proposed financial optimization with a reduction of the anticipation of receivables and BRL 7 billion in gross indebtedness throughout 2021.

To also name a few initiatives in progress. We highlight the technological platforms, which are making progress in optimizing the connection between systems and also in unifying the infrastructure based on cloud computing and on big data. As for the new layout, we are moving forward towards 2 fronts, dark stores and [ the space ]. As for dark stores, over 300,000 square meters of map back off area are being now converted into advanced units for storage and distribution of products from the stores. We also started the implementation of the new areas of financial services in O2O. As part of the new layout, project with the objective of improving customer experience allowing stores besides being a purchase or shopping center also become a point of experimentation, distribution, a service hub and also in media for new launches. In 2022, we will speed up the implementation of those new service areas in the stores.

On Slide 12, you can see the Ame highlights, which in 2021, delivered amazing results demonstrating the maturity of this operation. In the year, Ame reached TPV of BRL 26 billion, representing 138% growth over the previous year. Important to highlight that in this amount, we're not including the BRL 23 billion of discounts of receivables from sellers. Throughout the quarter, Ame totaled its first monthly breakeven point, a reflection of the exponential growth of its monetization front and ended the year with over 20 million downloads and 12 million monthly active users. In addition, our super app already has 87 features and the Ame credit card has surpassed 1.3 million cards issued mark.

On Slide 13, you can see the 3 strategic Ame pillars. Ame has become a complete financial platform with the goal of democratizing access to financial products and monetizing the Americanas S.A. ecosystem in order to have a substantial participation in the results. Ame's performance is divided in 3 pillars, engagement, platform, and credit. Engagement, we have a loyalty program, a digital wallet and a marketplace of financial and non-financial products and services. In platform, we have services, platforms for retail supply Bank as a Service, Credit as a Service, and Software as a Service. In credit, we offer financial services to suppliers, sellers, merchants, franchisees and customers. Ame benefits from all customers in the ecosystems, and the digital, physical, fulfillment, ad platforms and innovation engine platforms to offer financial and non-financial products with a low customer acquisition cost.

On Slide 15, you will see the recurrence. In challenging times, the diversification makes us more relevant because we can participate in a number of consumption moments. The average ticket is smaller, but recurrence is greater. Throughout decades, Americanas has shown that they have been present in the lives of Brazilian in the way that this is a differential. Today, our multi-platform operation allows us to gain more relevance in different categories. The physical platform has several store premise, which together with our wide assortment and national capillarity allows us to serve customers in different consumption journeys. The digital platform has increasingly focused on expanding the assortment, especially in recurrence categories, which allows us to grow above market gaining more market share. In the quarter, we highlight the growth of some categories like supplements and vitamins, automotive, instruments market and fashion.

In addition, our recent M&A movements further expand our reach, allowing us to enter in verticals, where we had little or no market share, increasing our relevance in the customers day-to-day. If recurrency is the name of the game, resiliency is the result as you can see on Slide 16. In this quarter, total GMV grew 28.3%, 41 percentage points above retail, which fell 12.7% during the period. The online GMV grew 36.2%. This means 16.4 percentage points above the market. We have reinforced our goal of continuing to gain market share in a sustainable fashion focused in the long-term with sound balance of growth, profitability and cash generation.

On Slide 18, you can see our ESG. In 2021, based on the potential of our operations, we will also act to accelerate the generation of impact throughout Brazil. Following our ESG strategy with Americanas Favelas program, we deliver professional trainings to residents in several communities such as Paraisopolis, Heliopolis and [indiscernible]. The Americanas Social Program brought products produced by social institution and craftspeople to Americanas website and applications. The environmental pillar, well, the company expanded the use of eco-efficient fleet and clean energy to our brick-and-mortar stores. We also supported the development of expansion of vaccine plants to Fiocruz and Butanta, donated more than BRL 2 million in laptops to education departments and distributed books to needy communities. In the regions affected by heavy rains and floods, we delivered 75 tonnes of food and water.

We signed a commitment with the Movement for Racial Equality and we reinforced the strategic partnership with UNICEF to reduce school dropouts and generate jobs in the 1 million opportunities project. In just 1 year, we hired more than 7,000 vulnerable youngsters. All these initiatives have earned us important recognition. We are now part of the select group of Brazilian companies that are part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. And we have been selected for the 8th consecutive year, while we were selected to join B3's ISE portfolio, which certifies companies that promotes best practice. These results reinforce our purpose and adding the good that the world has to improve people's lives.

On Slide 18 (sic) [ Slide 19 ], we highlight our eco-efficient fleet driven by the Americanas Plus Climate Program. Today, we have one of the largest electric fleets and the largest bike operation in the country. We have a fleet of 147 electric bikes and tuk-tuks, and 196 SUVs and trucks running on biomethane and natural gas, which are already in circulation in addition to 114 fueling stations installed in our operational base. With these investments only in 2021, we will avoid -- we avoided the emission of more than 370 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. This progress reinforces our commitment to combat climate change in line with our goal of having a net zero company by 2025.

On Slide 20, we present our strategic vision for the business, Americas (sic) [ Americanas ] as a strategic model focused on offering increasingly customized and convenient consumption journeys for all customers, unique assets built on a history of more than 20 years driven and something that strengthens our growth strategy. This would be a 51 million active customer base business platforms and it's 43,400 associates with a strong owner culture, thanks to these unique assets. We have built competitive differentials like a wide assortment focused on recurrence and convenience, national multi-channel capillarity and low customer acquisition costs. Our model seeks growth with profitability with our unique assets and competitive differential, we will be able to accelerate our dream to grow organically, driven by the development and the evolution of our platforms. The core element is the core, where -- this is where our commerce brands are. In the second layer, you can see organic growth initiatives and in the future layer led by IF, we have a number of several disruptives that encourage the use of new technologies across all platforms and drive the development of new businesses.

With this, we have concluded our presentation, and now we will go to our Q&A session. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And our first question from Danniela Eiger, XP Investimentos.

[Danniela Eiger, analyst]

I have 2 questions. One, the dynamic at the beginning of the year, you have shared the performance of the online channel in January, could you the -- elaborate on the online in the beginning of February? I know that your site stopped and also brick-and-mortar retail, if you could elaborate an update on this point? My second point would be about brick-and-mortar retail. You said you seek to deliver same-store sales above inflation. I would like to know what kind of initiatives and strategies do you have in mind? We have seen a generalized challenge in terms of food, which is an essential product that although you do have a convenience profile. I would like to understand what do you see in terms of initiatives in order to deliver all of this?

[Márcio Meirelles, executive]

Danniela, this is Marcio speaking. As to your first point about January growth and online growth, we have started strong, as I mentioned, at 40%. February also saw continued growth, something very close to what we had in January, until last Friday, of course, year-to-date last Friday, we're still assessing the impacts, trying to better understand the impacts coming from the cyber incidents. But more importantly, we are quite excited with this year's growth potential. January growth was driven for a few -- by a few sectors. We have been moving along, as mentioned before, and fishing in our own fishbowl as we like to say.

We have been expanded our active client base online, adding increasingly more recurrence for those clients and a series of other positive impacts we've noticed, including the improvement in user experience, something we invested in last year, that has also helped increase conversion. Assortment also -- long-tail products, where we grew significantly. Those are frequency categories, recurrence categories, if I may, and that has also helped growth as a whole. And we are quite excited, as I said, with this growth.

As to your last point, has to do with customer experience, but also with service level. We have been advancing, as I said, 24% of deliveries are now happening in up to 3 hours with the ship from store modality. We can work on reducing delivery times, of course, and there are several other fronts where we can improve, especially around 3P and 1P. 3P with an incentive to sellers to place their orders faster, so that they have better expectations around fulfillment and dropout. So as I said, we're quite excited about the year, and January was strong and February performing on a similar level as January.

[José de Barros, executive]

Danniela, as to your second question, this is Timotheo speaking about the physical platform. We see a return of clients, on a month-by-month basis, that number has been growing. Our stores are characterized by a high inflow of clients. Lots of people come to our store -- stores, and that generates transactions and recurrence. So as we see a gradual recovery of that flow, that will reflect directly in growth. Once again, our growth algorithm is based on 2 main pillars, same-store sales and new stores is the other pillar. When we look at same-store sales, Marcio has mentioned that there is no longer an obstacle or barrier between physical and digital, and that brings about several benefits, in particular, O2O.

But there are other opportunities around a more regional assortment, a more intense use of technology, the use of Ame or Ame at the store levels, so the stores become a hub for experience, where clients are able to experiment, where we can promote launches, we can also work as a distribution hub from the stores and that, of course, reflects on the numbers. In December alone, we made over 2 million deliveries. Did I answer your queries?

[Danniela Eiger, analyst]

Yes, yes, sure. If you could perhaps explain something about Ame. On the release, you said it reached its first monthly breakeven point before expectation. So now there is enough trend going forward or was it something one-off or seasonal or do you expect this trend to continue going forward?

[Anna Christina Saicali, executive]

Danniela, this is Anna. Well, we are very happy with that breakeven have been reached in November by Ame, that makes us all very helpful, of course, what we want now is to expand all those indicators for sure continue to grow.

[Danniela Eiger, analyst]

Excellent. Congratulations on the results.

[Anna Christina Saicali, executive]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Joao Soares from Citibank.

[Joao Pedro Soares, analyst]

I'd like to explore 2 issues. Number one, we know that the online environment is very much based on commission payments for sellers, that's a way to offset click cost and others. So I'd like to understand from your end, how do you see that environment? How does that impact your environment? Are you thinking about visiting that model? And how can you attract long-tail sellers and also sellers for the fulfillment front? So that you can address the commission payment policy. Also, the partnership with Vibra, how can you leverage that partnership and the store base to explore the online front? So that's the questions I had.

[Unknown]

Joao, this is Raoni speaking. I'll address your first question. I would split that in 3. As for the take rate, we have been having a constant take rate throughout time and we've been trying to improve. Our business is based on partnerships. Last year, 2021, we brought about some new things along the year in terms of commissioning rules, we gave voice to the sellers, that's important to say. Early in the year, early in the month, actually, we promoted new changes, and we introduced commissions by category. It used to be fixed before, especially for small sellers, that's important. And those changes aim at attracting new sellers and aim at increasing growth across different categories, especially recurrence categories, which is one of our main targets.

As to your comments in terms of the onboarding of new sellers, we understand that the business combination allows us to leverage all those competitive advantages. Our main differential is to be able, as I said, to fish in our own fishbowl. We have 51 million active clients, and no more barriers for them to migrate across platforms. So without a doubt, what sets us apart, clearly, is the fact that we can generate sales, digital sales starting in the physical stores and vice versa.

When we look at the -- at Q4, we saw an average, average of over 1 million apps downloaded at physical stores. So those are indications of how powerful that business combination can be when you use your client base as a differential. And that also links to the third question you asked about how to onboard more regional sellers. Without a doubt, using the footprint of our stores, we are now operating in over 400 cities, that really, really differentiates us. So stores, physical stores are a way for us to explore that large footprint across the country. So the business combination also becomes a different source of potential to be explored.

[Miguel Gomes Pereira Gutierrez, executive]

Joao, this is Miguel speaking. About your second question, our partnership with Vibra, we created a company called Vem, that company has several different objectives. Today, we are present in over 1,200 point of sale. We believe we can quickly get to a lot more than that because BR alone has 8,000 outlets and gas stations. And we want franchisees, we want them to be a character, a main character in our journey. We want them to be happy, satisfied, content. We want them to like to be part of our company, then we offer a range of possibilities to be developed in terms of eCommerce. So we are, as I said, quite excited. We could have delivery points across the country. We could have service rendering hubs. So there are several possibilities going forward to include those franchisees, and that will be good for them and good for us. So it is a set of ideas, which is quite large. So the company has a Board of Directors, which will provide plans and guidelines to move forward. But as we move ahead, we will communicate that to you, okay?

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Bob Ford from Bank of America.

[Robert Ford, analyst]

Anna, there was some ambiguity when you talked about Ame about the breakeven in November. Was it a one-off thing? How can we think about Ame's profitability this year when compared to previous losses? And Miguel, there was never much discussion about the joint venture with Vibra. Can you talk a bit about -- more about the joint venture's economic model?

[Miguel Gomes Pereira Gutierrez, executive]

Bob, thank you for your question. I'll start by addressing Vem. Vem is an independent company. Vibra has 50% of stake and we hold 50% of the stake. We do have a plan in place to generate value. The Board has its members, myself, and we'll have weekly meetings -- and Wilson, and we have weekly meetings to discuss what we want to have going forward. We have established a dedicated management for that company, a very skilled and experienced management group. Natalia Cid is the one at the helm, a person with a vast experience in the market. We have already defined the whole management structure, and we are now in a phase where we're going to dream together.

We are very ambitious, both with Vibra, with Wilson leading the way. And it is a company, we believe will very, very quickly take off. We have a lot to contribute and so do they. But as a business model, it is a franchise. And we know that for them to evolve, franchisees need to want to be with us and make a winning move with us. That's the whole dynamics to have franchisees buy into the program. And this will help turn gas station businesses into something even more profitable where they really want to be with us. So we are working towards that. Our first introductory meeting was held last week after the company was incorporated, and the next meeting will happen early in March, where we will be approving the business plan and other projects. So we are quite excited with that as well, okay? As to your second question, I'll turn it over to Anna.

[Anna Christina Saicali, executive]

Bob, about the breakeven for Ame's EBITDA, we understand this is just the beginning. We were expecting to reach that level by 2022. We were able to anticipate that breakeven point through high revenues and efficiency in reducing the cost of customer acquisition. We have evolved along those indicators quarter-on-quarter. And for 2022, we know that Ame will start monetizing other -- monetizing that whole ecosystems coming from Americanas. So I think we want to evolve consistently around those indicators.

[Operator]

Our next question from Helena Villares, Itau.

[Helena Villares, analyst]

This is a quick question. I know that you have carried out a number of initiatives to improve the profitability of your platform. You can create credit for the suppliers or Uni.co or even from Hortifruti. The Ame platform is being used and you have a number of initiatives to make your platform more profit. I would like to know what is more relevant terms in financial terms, and what are your priorities regarding all of your initiatives?

[Fabien Picavet, executive]

Helena, this is Fabien speaking. Well, yes, there are a number of initiatives in order to improve the profitability of all of our ecosystem. We have been talking about Ame, that is our financial platform with an important role in order to develop and to improve the profitability of our ecosystem. This is important for our future. Now during this quarter, we elaborated on all the progresses that we made in our financial services from Ame. And we are reassured with everything. We believe that the combination delivers us new opportunities and this will happen throughout this year.

We have also been accelerating our ads as an important initiative, we have accelerated as well. Our Ame credit card and everything regarding financial services, credit insurance for our suppliers, and the acquisitions provide us new opportunities to explore the network effect using all the ecosystem and offering to the participants of this ecosystem financial services. Therefore, we believe that this will contribute more with our results and will become more important.

Can I highlight something? When we talk about fishing in your fishbowl, this is also a way of giving more profit to our ecosystem as a whole, because the results, as Marcio stated, have been extraordinary. We know that to -- that you need a CAC to get more clients. So we can have a better CAC through fishing in our fishbowl, and all the dynamic that is to create more customers, have more customers, and to be able to maintain our system as a whole, well, at the end, this helps us in our profit. So I would like to highlight this initiative as something that is very powerful and we are highly reassured regarding the strategy.

[Operator]

Our next question from Eric Huang from Santander Bank.

[Eric Huang, analyst]

I have 2 questions. One would be a follow-up question, if Miguel could talk about this. When you're talking about fishing in your fishbowl, when I see your base, where is there space for improvement in fishing in your fishbowl? Could you elaborate on the integration processes and the different stages? What would be a major stage that you should conclude perhaps this could be the tech platform? What do you expect to see in the upcoming months?

[Miguel Gomes Pereira Gutierrez, executive]

This is Miguel speaking. Fishing in your fishbowl is a concept in which that we have always believed on, but we intensify this through a combination. You have to remember in the past when they were independent companies, the first point that you have to establish is how much are you going to charge from one company to the other and follow all the dynamics from the past. Now the way we are now because we are, well, we have started strengthening this. And what has happened, the response from our customer has been extraordinary. We have to remember that our store is not a destination store. It is a store where people go for new things, they feel pleased to buy.

And this is scattered throughout the entire country. When we embark in a new city, for instance, we see that when we embark in the new city, the effects are spectacular. Why, because many times we bring a modern touch to this city and well-being in access to products. And with all of this, we're able to capture new customers through our system. And these are customers that aren't properly -- are properly serviced regarding goods and services or perhaps there's a potential of wanting to buy more products.

I would like to say that this is a journey that is in its starting point. Now when we see the amount of customers on both platforms from 2019 up to the day, we have three-folded this number. Therefore, here, we have a very relevant space. And there is -- there are things that we still have to explore because this is an ongoing process. The same thing happens with our integration. Our integration is a daily discovery process, our teams work, the challenge is always to think differently. Now, of course, all the integration depends on our systems because they have to be integrated. This is something that we know that will take some time because these are companies that in terms of tech would work independently, but also in a sophisticated fashion. Therefore, when we carry out these integration, well, everybody, well, here, we need research and development, but certainly, we're not worried to see when this will end. The first, if we are in continuous movement and going toward the right direction, and I do believe we are, because our figures show this. All right.

[Operator]

Our next question from Joseph Giordano, JPMorgan.

[Joseph Giordano, analyst]

I would like to know more about your store modernization. We see stores open with a new format. I would like you to elaborate on this? Could you talk about the retrofit plan for your stores? And number 2, and I've already asked this question in the past, how should we think about the reorganization of the sales area? Because in areas that don't sell so much in your store, you could use other formats. Now that you are -- you've been working with fruit and vegetables for 2 and 3 months, I would like to know what are the real estate premium opportunities in order to accelerate the light store concept?

[Miguel Gomes Pereira Gutierrez, executive]

You have to remember that our physical platform structure is in progress. 5 years ago, our customers would go to the store to buy. Today, the role of the store is completely different. This is an evolving process. Today, we see stores as an area of experience, and customers by the experiment, we -- this is also a distribution point. Now we launch products. So we're starting to use this as a media tool and a hub for financial and non-financial services. Now all the evolution of our physical platform is reflected in a number of initiatives.

So when we reorganized the layout of our store, putting O2O areas, this is because the volume of products that leave the store is so big that you have to reorganize your layout. From -- in December, when we talk about over 2 million orders coming out of the store, we don't provide a better experience to our customer in the store, having a picking area or for the delivery, well, the experience will be as good. Now likewise, there is a major opportunity of financial and non-financial services from Ame. We are opening Ame spaces in our stores in order to capture that this is part of fishing in the fishbowl. We have major flows in our stores and we have to monetize this. So fishing in the fishbowl is to offer credit cards to our customers to offer guarantees against theft, robbery. These are the services that we can start offering another Wi-Fi in our stores. This says a lot about our initiatives.

This is why we use our stores in order to download the Americanas app and the Ame as well, the use of self-checkout. This is something that has been broadened in all of our stores, because we want to have an operation that is more agile. This is a sum of initiatives in order to change the experience and to foster a superior purchase experience, and all of this is reflected on our growth on same-store sales.

Well, regarding your second question, vegetables and produce, I -- we are evolving this concept, because here we have established a concept, but this is internal. We have online -- we have partners. We have established a leader that is Fabio, that was chosen as part of the Board. And as of this point, we are developing our working plan. The amount of opportunities ahead of us are immense. Starting by real estate, that undoubtfully presents opportunities to offer areas that are available, always remembering that we have areas in all of Brazil that are premium areas. And Fabio within the working plan that he is developing, and we are working with a consulting company that helps us with this vision because they know that this is a different experience, a different customer. And there are many intersections here, but we believe that we can achieve in more. Therefore, we have a detailed plan, and there is no doubt in terms of real estate. Well, this is -- this is something that we are analyzing, because here we see a number of opportunities.

Now regarding -- regarding technology, there is no doubt that we will be able to help eCommerce as a whole. In reality, you have to remember that our approach is that we recognize that this is a different public. This is a premium experience. We want to maintain this. We want to value and broaden into improve this experience. So we are taking all of the steps in order to broaden this in a strong way. So here we see a number of opportunities and everything is translated in the value generation plan. And Fabio is leading this point. He has a great experience with vegetable and produces, and he has worked in other companies of the market. And with this, we will be able to establish this order of priorities and real estate. Well, Fabio is already interacting with our people from real estate because we are spread throughout Brazil and we have great knowledge about this market. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Goldman Sachs, Felipe Rached.

[Felipe Rached, analyst]

It's a follow-up of a previous question about the new take rate structure with a different categories for different long-tails. Do you have any initial feedback to share? Do you think you'll have a neutral impact on the company's economics? And also, if you could break down the data for 24-hour delivery and 48 hours, that would be very helpful?

[Unknown]

Rached, this is Raoni. Thank you for your questions. As for the take rate, the idea was to bring more intelligence to the way we were dealing with take rate. For that seller public, we had a fixed take rate of 16%, and now we have a take rate split by categories. Some saw a drop, saw -- see -- some saw an increase in take rate. So the economics remain stable at the end of the day. So for some categories, we focus on recurrence. So we have favored some categories. But the economics, just in answer to your question, the economics stands to remain flat for the company. But, of course, at the same time, generating more opportunities because of this added intelligence.

It's important to reinforce that all the changes we have implemented, they are based on conversations with sellers. This is first and foremost a partnership. We try to listen to their demands and try to meet that. And no doubt, there's no doubt that other new things will come. This is a living organism. We need to pay attention to market demands, so we can implement improvements as we move. As for your second question, we highlighted 2 bits of data. In the past, we talked more about the 48-hour delivery time, but with the business combination, we've seen opportunities to bring those deliveries to an even quicker period. Forget about days and focus on hours. So today, we have ship from store across 900 stores in Brazil. So rather than speaking about 48 hours to deliver, we have to say that 24% of deliveries happen in under 3 hours. That number in and of itself is an example of what we're trying to say in terms of capturing value.

[Operator]

This completes our Q&A session. I'd like to turn the floor now back over to Mr. Gutierrez for his final comments. Please Mr. Gutierrez, you have the floor.

[Miguel Gomes Pereira Gutierrez, executive]

Thank you. Thank you all for participating in our earnings call. The results for 2021 make us all very proud. We are convinced that we are on the right track, and this is just the beginning. History is made of positive and acknowledgment moments and also made of challenging moments. But what does make a difference are the people and their purposes. We are increasingly more confident and the value brought by collective work as we search for a more just world.

The historical chapter Americanas S.A. wrote in 2021 was driven by a lot of hard work by our team, employees and Board members and also driven by the confidence of our shareholders, suppliers, sellers, franchisees, clients and society as a whole. They've all supported and inspired us as we try to generate more value. We have seen that this week in a more intense way. We are sure that we'll be able to believe in what is good in the world. So that together, we can improve the lives of everyone. Thank you all, and have a nice day, everyone.

[Operator]

Americanas S.A. audio conference and Lojas Americanas is now over. Thank you for participating, and have a nice afternoon, everyone.