It sold door to door, but after pandemic bet on e-commerce and today invoice R$ 5 million per year

Thiago Monteiro began his career as an entrepreneur in 2011, when he opened a cosmetics distributor on the coast of Brazil. At first, everything was simpler: he worked with some exclusive brands and provided beauty and personal care products. But it was during the pandemic that his life took another turn. Like many, he had to reinvent himself and eventually plunged into the digital world.

With the trade stopping and customers hesitating to pay, Thiago decided to bet on e-commerce. He turned a small mess into a mini operations center, put his stock to run and, in three months, was selling enough to cover all the expenses of the house. That was when he realized that the online had more potential than he could imagine.

Even though he was an entrepreneur “das ancients”, more connected to offline, Thiago began to share his experiences in digital. This led him to seek a tool that would facilitate the management of his e-commerce, which at the time already sold everything: household items, toys and children's shoes.

At first, the whole process was carried out manually.He and his wife, Nathalia, dedicated themselves to registering their products individually in various marketplaces, such as Mercado Livre and Shopee. They faced other various difficulties: inventory control was complex, systems were not integrated and even labels for sending the products via mail needed to be made one by one.

It was in 2022 that Thiago took a leap in his entrepreneurial journey by investing in technology. When looking for systems that would help him in these difficulties, he found Magis5, a platform for automation and integration with large marketplaces, such as Mercado Livre and Shopee.

“I was able to advertise my products all at once in all marketplaces integrated to the platform. I gained a lot of agility and visibility, which generated a boom in sales. Not to mention that all the procedures related to orders are processed in an automated and centralized way, from monitoring the status of the order to delivery, through sales control, billing and the dispatch of invoices and documents. “ was how we went from an improvised little room to a high-performance e-commerce”, he highlights. 

According to the merchant, the platform automates several manual tasks, such as creating ads and kits, inventory control, shipping, financial management, bringing detailed dashboards and providing greater efficiency and profitability for the business.

“I remember how inventory control was complicated, since the systems did not communicate with each other. Today, thanks to technology, everything is automated. Now I can manage my inventory easily and mass price different products with much more agility. All this intuitively that even those who are starting in e-commerce can use without difficulty”, he says.

Thus, the time spent in the management of marketplaces was reduced by half, allowing to achieve more results with less effort.“We even reduced the failures in sending products, which were common without an automated control. This also contributed to the reduction of logistical costs”, he explains. And if before three people were needed to take care of the shipment and separation of products, today he manages everything with only one employee.

Between 2022 and 2024, the transformation was even more significant. The result? A turnover of R$ 400 thousand per month, with a much leaner and more efficient operation.

However, Thiago does not want to stop here. Already has plans to launch his own brand, Tadebrinks, focused on children's products such as pantyhose, ties and overalls.

“Is it possible to run my business without a technology that integrates and automates management? That is, but it would require greater investments and much more effort to manage processes that are now fully automated. With this solution, I save time, reduce costs and minimize errors & benefits that would be much harder to achieve otherwise”, he explains.

Even with Brazilian e-commerce having a well-targeted profile, one thing is clear: being present in marketplaces can be decisive for the business. A survey by BigDataCorp, about the “Perfil of Brazilian E-Commerce”, showed that almost half of the virtual stores in the country (45,79%) are managed by only one person.In addition, 40,47% have a maximum of ten employees, usually between one and two.

In 2024, there are already more than 1.9 million virtual stores in Brazil, a growth of 17.14% compared to the previous year. Of these, 68.44% sell from one to ten products. These figures show how the sector is growing, but also reinforce the need to invest in technologies that help automate processes and give more strength to small businesses to excel in such a competitive market.