Meet the Expert: Sergio Morales, Digital Commerce Lead, Bogotá

Sergio Morales has overseen digital commerce for three of Colombia’s largest commercial-property managers. He specializes in using analytics to boost tenant engagement and retail center foot traffic. Sergio’s teams have piloted segmentation strategies in shopping malls, co-working spaces, and mixed-use developments across Latin America.

Q1: When thinking about customer segmentation for ecommerce in commercial real estate, where should beginners start?

Sergio: Start with the basics: group your customers by simple, observable traits. For commercial-property ecommerce, that usually means segmenting by business type (national retailer, local café, pop-up shop, service provider), lease size, and location in the property.

Don’t start with fancy algorithms right out of the gate. Use the data you already have in your ERP or leasing system — like square footage, contract duration, or average monthly sales.

A common trap I see: teams overcomplicate with too many segments, then can’t act on any of them. Keep it practical. For example, one Bogotá shopping center I worked with just grouped tenants into anchor tenants, food & beverage, and services. It was enough to spot which tenants engaged more with digital lease offers — and which needed traditional outreach.

Q2: What kinds of data matter most for effective segmentation in the real estate ecommerce context?

Sergio: You want a mix of property data and behavioral data. Property data is the stuff you store already — like tenant type, size of space, duration, or the vertical (fashion, electronics, fitness). Behavioral data comes from your ecommerce touchpoints: who downloaded what leasing brochure, who clicks on which property listings, who requests a virtual tour, who responds to email campaigns.

If you can, blend in external sources. For example, in Mexico City, we linked public Google Reviews into our CRM to see which tenants attracted higher consumer satisfaction. We found that retail shops with 4.5+ star averages were twice as likely to renew leases, so we started segmenting outreach to them separately.

One gotcha: make sure your data is trustworthy. Many Latin American property teams still input leads by hand or have missing records. Before segmenting, audit for duplicates, missing emails, and outdated business info, or your segments will be full of holes.

Q3: What segmentation strategies actually drive better ecommerce performance for commercial properties?

Sergio: I’ll give you fifteen strategies we’ve tested, but I’ll focus on ones that actually moved the needle:

The biggest jumps we saw came from segmenting by engagement score — basically, ranking tenants and prospects based on their digital actions. For instance, after segmenting email clickers vs. non-responders in a São Paulo mixed-use building, we increased virtual tour bookings by 26% in three months just by customizing the follow-ups.

Q4: How do you actually implement segmentation for ecommerce in a real estate company?

Sergio: Don’t get overwhelmed. Here’s a typical workflow:

1. Export your existing tenant/prospect data. Usually from your ERP or CRM.
2. Clean the data — deduplicate, fix emails, standardize industry types (retail, F&B, services, etc.).
3. Pick 2–3 segmentation criteria to start. For example: business type, lease expiry within 6 months, language preference.
4. Tag or group the records in your system. Some CRMs let you assign tags or “lists”; in Excel, create columns for each segment.
5. Test campaigns — send a leasing promo to a group about to expire their contracts, or share a property update in both Spanish and Portuguese if you have both clients.
6. Measure response — did segment A click more than segment B? If so, double down.

A tip: If your CRM or ecommerce platform doesn’t support segmentation, export to CSV and use Google Sheets or Excel to filter and test. Don’t wait for IT to automate everything.

Q5: Any stories where segmentation led to a big win (or a flop)?

Sergio: Absolutely. In 2023, we ran a campaign segmenting tenants in a Costa Rica retail park by lease expiry (within next 4 months) and digital engagement (had opened 3+ emails). We sent a special renewal offer with a one-click accept link. The usual renewal rate was 52%. For those who got the targeted offer, it jumped to 79%.

But here’s where we got burned: we didn’t check for duplicate contacts. One tenant manager got five emails and replied, “I thought this was a scam.” Always check for duplicate emails in your segment!

Q6: What tools matter most for entry-level teams wanting to segment their customers?

Sergio: You don’t need fancy tools. Excel is your best friend at first. For gathering qualitative data, free options like Zigpoll, Typeform, or Google Forms work for in-email surveys — especially for asking about language preference, industry, and how tenants like to be contacted.

For analytics, Google Analytics or even built-in reporting in your ecommerce system (like Shopify, Magento, or WooCommerce) is good enough. The main thing is to export your campaign results (open rates, clicks, form completions) and match them back to your segments.

If you outgrow Excel, Mailchimp or HubSpot let you create segments and track campaign performance without writing code.

Q7: What about privacy or local data laws in Latin America?

Sergio: You have to be careful. Many Latin American countries, Brazil especially, have strict data privacy laws (think LGPD in Brazil, similar to Europe’s GDPR). Never use sensitive data (like government ID numbers or bank details) for marketing segmentation.

Stick to business information and actions people took on your site. If you use surveys, always add a consent checkbox. In 2024, a Forrester report found that 63% of Latin American tenants are more likely to engage when communications feel personalized — as long as you’re transparent about data use.

Q8: How do you know when your segmentation is actually working?

Sergio: Track the numbers. For each campaign, compare performance by segment. Did Group A have higher open rates, more virtual tour bookings, or more lease renewals? The evidence should guide your next decision.

In one Guatemala coworking portfolio, we saw our WhatsApp-first segment had double the response rate (18% vs. 9%) compared to email-only offers. After that, we moved more budget to WhatsApp campaigns for those customers.

If a segment never shows a difference, ask if you’re using the right traits. Don’t be afraid to merge or drop segments that don’t provide new insights.

Q9: Are there common pitfalls for beginners?

Sergio: Three big ones stand out:

1. Too many segments, too soon. Beginners often create 10+ small groups and don’t have enough people in each for results to mean anything. Start broad, get more granular as you go.

2. Not fixing data quality. Bad emails, duplicate records, or missing fields kill segmentation. One missing email can mean a missed renewal.

3. Ignoring feedback. Always follow up with surveys (Zigpoll, Google Forms, or even WhatsApp) after campaigns to learn why a segment responded (or didn’t).

Q10: For the Latin America market, are there any unique considerations?

Sergio: Yes, definitely. First, language is not just Spanish vs. Portuguese — in cities like Miami and Panama City, tenants may prefer English, too. Always ask people which language they want communication in.

Second, messaging channels matter. WhatsApp is the main business channel in much of Latin America. In our 2024 tenant survey, 71% preferred WhatsApp over email. If you segment by channel preference, your open and click rates will dramatically improve.

Third, be aware of informal businesses. Many small tenants are family-run or even don’t have official business registration. For them, segmenting by sales volume or business age may not work; go by engagement with your digital offers.

Q11: How often should you review and update your segments?

Sergio: Every quarter, at least. Tenant lists change, people move, businesses close or expand. Old segments quickly get stale.

Schedule a quarterly review, check for duplicate or outdated contacts, and rerun any engagement scoring or behavior-based segmentation. You’ll catch trends early — and avoid embarrassing mistakes, like sending a move-in offer to someone who moved out six months ago.

Q12: What’s one segmentation mistake you wish you could fix at every company?

Sergio: Not asking the user for their channel or content preference up front. Every time we added a short Zigpoll survey to our onboarding — “Would you like updates by WhatsApp, email, or phone?” — campaign engagement improved by 15–20%.

Don’t guess. Let customers tell you how they want to be contacted.

Q13: Any advanced tips for teams ready to go past the basics?

Sergio: Try combining segments for more powerful targeting. For example, in one Bogotá mall, we identified “high engagement + lease expiring soon + top public rating” and offered those tenants exclusive renewal perks. Conversions were almost 3x the average.

Also, test by running simple A/B experiments within segments: send two versions of a renewal offer, see which works best, and roll out the winner. Just don’t forget to randomize fairly — don’t always send version A to only one type of business.

Q14: Are there cases where segmentation doesn’t add value?

Sergio: Sure. If you have a tiny prospect list (under 50), segments might not matter — just personalize communication one-to-one. Also, if your data is out of date or inconsistent, segmenting just spreads the mess.

For really small or new portfolios, focus on data hygiene and basics first — then layer in segmentation as you grow.

Q15: If a new ecommerce manager wants to take just three steps this month, what would you suggest?

Sergio:

1. Audit your tenant and prospect data. Clean up emails, update business types, and delete duplicates.
2. Choose one segmentation variable (like lease expiry or channel preference) and run a test campaign with a targeted message.
3. Send a simple survey (Zigpoll, Google Forms, or WhatsApp) and ask tenants how they want to be contacted and what content interests them.

Track your results, talk to your colleagues, and adjust. Segmentation is a cycle, not a one-time thing.

Final Thought

Start simple, use the data in front of you, and always measure what works. Latin America’s ecommerce in commercial property is growing fast, but the best teams keep it practical: a few good segments, updated data, and campaigns that actually fit the audience. That’s how you turn segmentation from a buzzword into better results.