Good afternoon, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to B2W Companhia Digital conference call to discuss Q1 2021 earnings results. Here today with us are Mr. Marcio Cruz, B2W Digital CEO, and Mr. Raoni Lapagesse, B2W Digital IRO. To better follow the conference call, we suggest that you use the support presentation available on our website, ri.b2w.digital. We'd like to inform you that today's call is being recorded, and at this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, we will open for questions and answers when additional instructions will be provided. Should you need any support during this call, please press star zero to reach an operator. A replay of this call will be available after it ends for a week.
Before proceeding, we'd like to clarify that any forward-looking statements made during this conference call regarding B2W business outlook, financial and operating projections and goals are based on beliefs and assumptions of the company's management team, as well as on information currently available. Forward-looking statements are no guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Therefore, they depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operating factors may affect B2W's future performance, and thus could lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now, I'd like to turn it over to our speakers. Mr. Cruz, please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for attending our first quarter earnings call. I'd like to share a couple of important message to you, then I'll turn over to Raoni for the Q1 highlights. On slide three, I would like to remind you that this is our second year of our strategic plan for a three-year plan. We would like to be more and more relevant in the lives of our customers, and we'd like to be more present in consumer journey. Moving on to the long tail, offering more products and services to these customers. The model of that plan is everything, anytime, anywhere. That clearly translates the assortment of products we offer and the different ways to consume using our platform. We've been growing quickly to keep on generating cash. On to slide four now. Just last year, we introduced our growth algorithm.
That's a result of opportunities we detected last year. It was a year that consumers' habits changed substantially, and therefore, several opportunities were put forward to help us grow the business. This growth algorithm has three important pillars. First, the shopping experience, then loyalty to make customers become more and more recurrent, coming back for more. The third is to be more present in the minds of consumers. That's awareness. There's seven varieties: assortment, customization, fast delivery, app, Americanas Mais and Ame, and again, brand awareness. We've been optimizing this algorithm to grow even further. In the first quarter, we focused on improving the service level. One of the initiatives we had was a new version of the marketplace platform. The number 1 goal is to improve service level. We've detected very interesting numbers. These are just a few highlights.
Order cancellation in marketplace, we had a 50% drop in the first quarter. Delays in shipping, a 30% decrease. That was very important because shipping is the first step that will impact delivery times. There shouldn't be any problems there, so w e have moved a long way there. That's the result of the incentives and the strategies we put in place to help sellers improve their service levels. We, of course, offer several services for these sellers so that they can improve their own service levels. On top of these variables, the algorithm has three important drivers, people, data, and money. People is our number one asset. This is a very important characteristics. You have to have that ownership mentality. Executives are usually more often concerned about their own development, their own career.
If you have the mindset of the owner, you want to generate value and long-term value. Our staff management is indeed a partner. Most of the equity is in the company, is invested in the company. That's the key characteristic that will reflect on execution capacity. We have delivered very much faster in this 1st quarter. That's why it's a very important characteristic. Another thing I would like to talk about people is that, once again, we have received a Great Place to Work certification, and we have managed to have a much better score than that we had last year. The team is truly committed to deliver on our strategic plan. In terms of data culture, we had a pilot project last year and we implemented this year, and that's the Data Academy.
The Data Academy, in a nutshell, is to promote the technology culture and using data across the board, not only in the technology department, but throughout the company. The Data Academy works for the technology department too. Of course, there's several knowledge levels within that academy. The intention is to help people work with data, statistics, coding, data storytelling, many interesting things. Data is the key driving force behind the company's growth. We're going to move forward throughout the year, but t he initial groups were very important to disseminate the data culture. M&A, another important driver in our inorganic strategy. Moving on to slide five now. If or IF leads that growth engine, and that is through M&A. For this 2020-2022 strategic cycle, we've conducted eight operations in the digital platform. We acquired Supermercado Now back in January last year. We're very pleased with that result.
It has been exponentially growing. More than half of items sold were supermarket items at B2W, but the supermarket baskets, half of it are fresh produce, so it's a major logistic challenge there. For the digital platform, we had Shipp, we just announced last month. It can help us by bringing a platform to connect food sellers. That was a gap we had. Shipp is there to close that gap. We can move forward towards that fast delivery. More than 14% of deliveries in the first quarter were up to three hours. Shipp brings us to another level. We go down to minutes now. Moving forward towards fast delivery by connecting that platform to our business. Just the day before yesterday, we announced a partnership with OOOOO. That's the live commerce arm. It's live Americanas ao Vivo.
Outstanding numbers in terms of engagement, customer conversion, entertainment through shopping. Sellers show they're engaged. They are very interested in taking part in those live streams and promoting their products. A very different selling experience. With the OOOOO, we have a technology platform that is well advanced in live commerce, i t's been tested time and time again in England. Outstanding results from the get-go, and very soon we'll be showing that to our customers. It's a new way to purchase with way more entertainment connected to it. It's a combination of shopping with entertainment, providing way more engagement on the part of our customers. I would also like to mention that the other acquisitions that were not involved in the digital platform for the other platforms, actually, fintech, physical, and store, Bit Capital, Parati, BR Mania, Uni.co.
All these elements help us move forward in other categories by promoting that digital experience to those customers there too, so t hey are major contributors too. On to slide six now. I would like to talk about growth. The results of all these initiatives, among others, we have boosted our growth dramatically. In Q4 last year, we grew by 38%. In the last quarter, we had already anticipated the growth for January and February, we reached 83% and 90%. March numbers, we grew 98%. We're picking up when compared to previous months. 90% was the average growth for the quarter. That growth is the result of our hybrid platform, 1P and 3P. 1P, we are at 69%, marketplace, three digits, 105%. These achievements make us feel even more motivated to keep driving, to keep pushing through. That's because of service level improvements in the first quarter, basically.
That was our main focus for this period. On to slide seven now. I would like to say that on the 28th, we announced that material fact with the proposal to combine the companies, creating Americanas S.A. We'll be giving customers way more value by combining all these platforms. The key word is to add, to combine physical, digital, fintech, logistics platforms. We will then be able to improve customer experience much, much more. Less friction, greater engagement, not only for customers, but also sellers, merchants, the suppliers, and the entire ecosystem. We envision way more opportunities to grow. From the digital point of view, we believe it's only the beginning. When you compare the e-commerce penetration in retail overall, we believe this is just the beginning.
We have moved forward substantially last year and this year too, but we still believe there's room to improve even more so that we can grow even further. That makes us feel very excited. We still have a lot of work to do to keep growing even further. These were the highlights I would like to comment on, and I'll turn over to Raoni now. He'll be talking about the highlights for the first quarter. Thank you.
Thank you, Marcio. Good afternoon. Let me talk about the first quarter results. Let me start the presentation on slide nine. Our GMV amounted to BRL 8.7 billion, a 90.4% growth. Marketplace GMV amounted to BRL 5.6 billion, up 105%. It's picking up strongly when compared to a 31% growth in Q4 2020. Net revenue reached BRL 2.9 billion, 73% increase. Adjusted gross profit was BRL 938 million, up 77.9%. Adjusted EBITDA, BRL 129 million.
An adjusted EBITDA margin of 4.4%. The EBITDA margin 4.4% are the result of the free shipping program of Americanas Mais, linked to an improvement of a service level through a co-participation model of sellers and also investments and awareness, just like Marcio said, that helped us grow dramatically in the first quarter. On to slide 10. This is our active customer base growth. March 2021, we had 22.9 million active customers that had some purchases in the past 12 months. Year-over-year, we have an additional 6.2 million customers. When you look at the first quarter only, we have 1.5 million customers, new customers, picking up on the gains we've had in previous months. These numbers include the digital platform only. When you add the other platforms, you have 48 million active customers. Our total base is over 90 million registered customers.
That's one of our most important assets in the Americanas universe. On to slide 11. That's the acceleration of purchase frequency as the result of working hard to become more relevant on the daily lives of our customers. We see an increase in frequency. Customers with two or more orders, we have an increase of 55% when compared to Q1 2020. On slide 12, this is the sellers and assortment evolution. In the past 12 months, we connected 40,000 new sellers and 96,000 total. In April, we have surpassed the important mark of 100,000 sellers connected to the marketplace. The assortment is even more complete and we keep on offering more and more products, 77 new million items year-over-year, 99 million different offers. When you look at April, we have surpassed the 100 million items offered on our platforms. The total is 102 million items.
On to slide 13. That's Americanas Mercado. It accounts for 52% of total items sold in the first quarter. The largest growth, 8 times growth when compared to Q1 2021. This operation keeps on growing and expanding. We keep on adding new partners. We had connected Carrefour, Big, and other partners. In early 2021, we signed in a partnership agreement with Pão de Açúcar. We have over 1,500 partner stores connected so that we can expand our operations throughout the country. Americanas Mercado is the largest supermarket marketplace in the country. It's a complete end-to-end platform to partners, including software as a service, payment solutions, logistics, picking, delivery, and customer service. We can digitalize the supermarkets and connect them quickly to online selling. On to slide 14. This is the Shipp acquisition, the delivery on-demand startup. Over 20,000 delivery people connected, high service level. Deliveries take on average 36 minutes.
The app is usually used. Customers usually purchase three times a month on average. We'll be able to enter the ultra-fast delivery in a matter of minutes. By acquiring Shipp, we can provide a better customer experience in the category of food delivery. We started in 2020, and w e can expand the grocery category to other markets so we can offer O2O solutions on offline to online. On to slide 15 now. This is the fast delivery front that's up to LET'S, our logistics platform. We have 22 fulfillment centers, 200 hubs, and over 6,000 stores connected to the ship from store type. It's 24 hours. It's in over 1,000 cities in the first quarter of 2021. They amounted to 44% of the total volume of orders, including 1P and 3P. Another important delivery modality is the super fast delivery.
We are going to be the fastest delivery system in Brazil. 14% of deliveries were conducted in up to three hours. For 2021, the super fast delivery is one of our top priorities. On to slide 16 now. These are the O2O initiatives. The GMV amounted to BRL 1 billion, a 90% growth. The infinite shelf is available in all 1,700 Americanas store. Click and collect, 12,279 points, over 5,000 cities in the country. Pick up on store today, available in 6,700 stores. The ship from store, over 6,000 stores now, including Americanas and marketplace sellers stores as well. Ship from store is operated by Ame Flash, our crowd shipping proprietary platform with over 25,000 delivery people registered there. On to slide 17. Let me talk about the new partnership with Uhu, a mobile social commerce platform. This is an innovative live commerce platform.
Uhu was introduced by Sam Jones, by Aiki Zenk, the TikTok technology director. This is a concept of live streaming and shopping. It was a hit in the U.K., especially younger generation, the Z generation consumer. The most downloaded app in the shopping category. It combines live commerce with gamification, increasing engagement even more. Several games are available during the live stream. Customers can get or compete for coupons and even get products for free. Customers are way more entertained, so they come back for more. The platform will be introduced in Brazil will be integrated with our complete system in a social commerce app that will be introduced now in May. This agreement encompasses the exclusivity use of their technology in Brazil by B2W, we can even have a joint venture established.
That partnership helps us to speed up advertising and entertainment verticals, including Americanas ao Vivo and the B2W advertising platform. On slide 12, the mobile highlights. As the result of the investments we made in that platform, 63 million downloads, and the Americanas app was the most downloaded app in the shopping category in Brazil. In Q1 for 2021, we have a monthly active users that are 40 million in total now. Slide 19. This is the rapid evolution of Ame, our fintech and mobile shopping platform. The number of downloads keep on picking up, over 19 million downloads now. Ame keeps on expanding on accepting offers. Almost three million stores are connected. The total payment volume is BRL 5.1 billion in Q1, a 350% growth, picking up substantially from last quarter, in which we grew by 200%.
On top of being a payment platform and a loyalty platform, we keep on expanding on our banking solutions, offering more financial services. On Slide 20, we can see recent strategic acquisitions by Ame. After acquiring Bit Capital, a core banking solutions in Parati, operating as a Banking-as-a-Service and RegTech, both in December. Ame, in May, we announced we acquired Nexoos, a fintech connecting small and medium-sized company with investors. Nexoos has been accredited by the central bank to be used as a society to loan money. It's a hybrid funding solutions, institutional investors and individual. It's P2P model. We have a digital platform for a complete credit solution, including loans and also credit as a service.
Nexus platform uses a proprietary technology, including a credit score system, and when it's integrated to the hybrid funding model, you can offer differentiated credit services with more competitive rates and no risks for Nexus. We democratize credit access so entrepreneurs can be more competitive in investing in their businesses. Once you integrate Nexus to Ame platform and our businesses, Nexus can help us speed up the credit system, including over 100,000 sellers in the marketplace and over the three million merchants we have in Ame. These were the highlights for the first quarter of 2021. I think we can start the Q&A session now. Thank you.
Our first question comes from Mr. Luiz Felipe, BTG.
Good afternoon, Marcio. Good afternoon, Raoni. I actually have two questions. First, with regard to GMV, you discussed assortment and number of sellers in April. Can you please talk a little bit more about the trends you see and also the conversion rate you see, particularly going back to February and the shipping activities you mentioned? Now with the acquisition of Nexoos, what other functionalities can we consider in having added to your platform? How can that add to Ame? Thank you very much.
Hi, Luiz. Thank you for your questions. Let me address your first point, the GMV in April. Well, first, we have to remind you about the growth in the first quarter. That is a consequence of the growth we had in Q4, 83, 90, and then 98%. We have picking up that growth throughout the quarter. That's the result of the measures we have been taking. It's not a silver bullet business. We have several fronts, improving the algorithm. We have been improving the platform, free shipping in Americanas Mais, fast deliveries, and that drives more business when you combine all these elements together. Growth comes with quality. We believe it's sustainable. It can stand on its own. We've been able to adjust these variables to help us improve and increase that growth, as we have seen.
When you look at the conversion rate, there are some elements that help us improve that rate. We had a 30% increase in the quarter, a very important result therefore, and mainly because of two components, higher use of the app, just to give you a reference. The app importance grew 11% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021, and also the delivery, free shipping in Americanas Mais and faster deliveries. When you look at these algorithms and the variables, and all of them have the same goal at the end of the day, to have a better consumer experience, of course you have that growth. Let me address the second part of your question about the growth in April. We started the month of April with very solid growth. It's a very positive outlook, of course.
In April, we have that comparison base of the pandemic of last year. However, we have managed to keep on growing very fast. When you look at the compounded growth, including 2021 to 2019, to neutralize that effects of last year, April was the month that we've had the highest growth, when you have that compounded or compound basis for comparison. We are very pleased with the growth and its quality, how it was generated, and what we have to deliver for the rest of the year. Now on to the second question about Ame. Ame has been evolving. It started out to provide discounts more intelligently.
It was a loyalty system for both physical and digital platform to giving yet another dimension to the relationship with customers, moving away from consumption only in digital platforms, to have a different interaction with customers, so aligned with the objective of being more relevant to customers. It has been evolving very quickly. It's been in operation for a little over two years, but has quickly become a means of payment off us, what we call it, payments outside of our universe, which will enable us to bring more customers to our universe. From late last year up to now, we've been focusing on building our financial solution platform. First, we introduced the credit marketplace, connecting fintech, offering credit within Ame platform. We introduced our prepaid credit card through partnerships, and now we have acquired tree companies focusing on developing our banking solution. We acquired Bit Capital., its a core banking.
Parati, that gives us central bank licenses to operate in the banking arena, and Nexus Bank in May, another license to help us speed up in these credit initiatives. Our business view for Ame is to keep on growing substantially both on us and off us, and building our banking platform. This is a route we've been indicating we're going to focus on based on these recent acquisitions. We are considering any other acquisitions, both for Ame or in any other platform that we deem will contribute to our objectives. We'll keep on doing that. It's a very robust M&A agenda, just like you saw, eight acquisitions up to now, and we have been looking at very good opportunities down the road.
Thank you. Thank you very much for your answers.
Thank you.
Thank you, Luiz. Our next question comes from Thiago Macruz from Itaú.
Hello, everyone. Good afternoon. I'd like to ask you about Ame's TPV. I think you mentioned that outside the platform, there was a specific trend. How do you see that evolving? Can you please tell us what you find reasonable so that the TPV outside the platform surpasses what you have within Americanas? If you can please add some color on that. Thank you.
Hi, Thiago. Thank you. Yes, we've been giving more color on Ame. Now you see the TPV. That was one of the highlights for the quarter, BRL 5.1 billion, a 350% growth, quite substantial. Last year, we have expanded the Ame business plan by adopting digital means of payment, and Ame is just at its start. Despite that very expressive or that important number of BRL 5.1 billion, again, it's been in operation for two years, a little over two years only. Central Bank aims at democratizing the banking system. It was born in the Pix native environment. We're very excited. We see Ame as something that can be even more valuable than B2W when you compare the two companies separately. When you look at market operations today, that indicates the value that Ame may have in the future of the business.
The TPV of us, we're not going to break that down, i t's still premature to do that. The market is paying close attention to fintech initiatives. We're not going to announce that number because it's strategic still. We've been conducting several partnerships, w e're very pleased with the BR partnership. Drug stores, grocery stores, high frequency outlets. We expect very robust growth for Ame in months to come.
Thank you very much, Raoni.
Let me give you. Our TPV reached 40%. Over 40%, actually, and keeps on growing.
Our next question comes from Miss Irma Sgarz from Goldman Sachs.
Hello, good afternoon. My question is about expenses. Obviously, your growth is very impressive, but we know that there was a cost for that. Americanas Mais and free shipping. If we think about the snapshot of the climate and what to expect for the next quarters, especially considering expenses with sales, do you think that for the next quarters, you will have operating leverage, considering the growth that you are going through? Also, the high conversion rate and satisfying your customers. Do you think that you are still going to invest in the coming quarters? Do you think that this will be mature enough? This is my question. Sales costs.
Thank you, Irma, for your question. As to expenses, we've been talking about it for quite some time now. We have been looking for somewhat different balance between growth and profitability so that we can speed things up. Investing initially in some areas, just like I said, in the algorithm, and the free shipping investments, like you said. This kind of investment in free shipping is based on the seller's co-participation pegged to their service level. You've seen the highlights, it's always linked to the improvement of seller's operation so that we can provide a better experience overall to customers. This model takes time to mature. It's more cumbersome initially, and once you get to gains of scale, you end up diluting it. When you look at the investments we made now, initially, it's a full investment, not having benefiting from the counterparts.
We believe that the investment was way smaller than what we saw the competition do in the past. The margin level we had to disregard was not that bad. A somewhat smaller margins, but growth almost tripling, and d own the road, as we optimize the balance of these variables, we can have better profitability. At the end of the day, we're always committed to cash generation. Despite this major investment, the nominal EBITDA was flat, slightly growth year-over-year. For the year, we'll keep on generating cash. We feel very comfortable at this investment level. In a nutshell, expenses, investments are focused in our Americanas Mais, the free shipping, and brand awareness. As we speed up, we grow more, we bring more returns, more recurring customers, active customer base growing too. That will reduce our investment levels.
Of course, profitability will be better when compared to that we had at the start. That's the balance we're looking for.
Perfect.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Ms. Olivia Petronilho from JP Morgan.
Hello, everyone, t hank you for taking my question. I actually have two questions. First, you commented on supermarket both in the release and now during the call. Do you see any cross-sell between this category and the legacy assortment of your company? Do you believe you can leverage on other categories, or are these two separate? As for Ame, we also see you are investing heavily on that. First, how much of this TPV do you see generated with regards to cashback, and what are your expectations for the future regarding this specific initiative?
Hi, Olivia, t hank you for your question. As to the first question, yes, we've seen a lot of cross-sell on both ends. Americanas Mercado bringing more sales to the entire platform because once it's integrated, since it's a high-frequency category, the average frequency is twice a month. Our average for the online segment, e-commerce, is two to three times a year. We have a much higher frequency in grocery shopping. That allows us for customers to come to the app and our platform many times. Once they come back to shop more, you have an opportunity to have cross-selling so that they can purchase more. Americanas Mercado uses our platform strength. We have a very robust, active customer base. We increased that base by almost a million, so that cross-selling is happening on both ends, one helping the other.
That's in line with what we believe that we can generate more frequency. Grocery store accounts for 53% of items sold. The partnership with Uhu, entertainment, live streaming. At the end of the day, you have that customer spending more time and coming to the platform more regularly to monetize our assets. That's our intention when we integrate these areas. As to the second question about Ame, I cannot give you any further detail as to what that incentive is, and I'm referring to cashback. Cashback plays two different roles. One thing is the cashback in our platforms, and cashback operates as if it were a loyalty program. It leverages sales. The way we see it, investments in cashback at Ame, it's in our balance sheet for B2W. It's a sales leverage. Every BRL, we have 11 times additional sales for every BRL given in the form of cashback.
It's a very powerful cashback program. It replaces other discount models more intelligently. They did not yield the same benefits, y ou can have the lock-in of customers within the platform, so the cashback can yield several benefits. Outside the platform, cashback is just another means to bring more customer at the end of the day. It's a customer acquisition cost, not only for Ame, but for the entire universe, because Ame brings in new customers that didn't purchase from our universe, but they go to a gas station, they go to a grocery store, they purchase at a drugstore. You can bring these customers to our platforms as well, so that can use our network effect there. Looking down the road, looking forward, these investments are according to plan. We do have a business plan for Ame, and that, of course, foresees investments.
At the same time, we keep on managing the TPV so that it can become more effective. It's 100% in our hands to give the cashback. That's the beauty of that business. We have the business plan, we trust it, and Ame will become profitable. That has to go through the entire development of the platform. It's not only payments or loyalty, but at the same time, to move towards the direction of banking that help us in the monetization too. That's how far I can go today.
Perfect. Thank you very much, Raoni.
Thank you, Olivia.
Our next question comes from Mr. Ruben Couto from Santander.
Good morning, everyone. You just touched on sales expenses, and you mentioned the three factors. Can you please share how much growth and how much each factor contributed to that? More specifically, marketing. I understand that there was this growth, but I want to know how much marketing contributed to that increase. We know that right now everybody is looking for more customers. It's been more challenging than last year. You mentioned 50% of deliveries that were carried out very quickly, and I want to understand whether you consider that that will stay on the same level. Can you please elaborate a little bit on that, the relationship between you and the sellers?
Hi, Ruben, g ood afternoon. Thank you for your questions. As to the expenses, let me point out that this investment falls within our vision of a balance of variables, just like I answered in the previous question. When you look at investments made in the past in our competition, they had investments and way bigger than the investments we're making. It's a different balance, but at the end of the day, we'll be able to be focused in generating cash. We pay very close attention to it. When you look at the cash consumption in the Q1, it's basically linked to seasonality, but we had major efficiency gains there. When you look at cash consumption in Q1, it's 10.3% of our GMV. When you look at the same indicator in first quarter of 2020, we've improved almost 400 basis points. We're making this investment.
We believe it makes sense, and it's always linked to improving service level, increase shopping frequency, and greater engagement. Once you generate these benefits to the company, this financial model becomes even more optimized. We can even cover more spaces with free shipping. We can even expand that. It's a living entity, so we have to adjust it as we go. When you look at last year's numbers, that was the investment in Americanas Mais, free shipping, just like you said. 52% of sales use free shipping. Last year, it was about half. With the new packaging of the Americanas Mais, we doubled free shipping, which is very good to customers after all, and we can, of course, benefit from it. As far as marketing goes, no major highlights. We've been sponsoring Big Brother products in that Big Brother category.
The highlight in expenses we didn't have last year is exactly the Americanas Mais program. Always striving for that balance. With the co-partnership, you have to have a minimum ticket price. Sellers can only have free shipping depending on their service level. The higher the service level, the greater our share will be. That improves service level and brings costs down by using that model.
Okay, v ery clear. Thank you.
Thank you, Ruben.
Our next question comes from Mr. Guilherme Assis, Banco Safra.
Hello, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. I actually have two questions. First, I know that the math is not 100% correct, but when we try to estimate, it's around 10%, I think that you changed your strategy in order also to be competitive. With regard to the uptake. I'd like to ask if the take rate rather is really around 10%. It seems to me that it's flat right now. I want to understand first if my math is right, and how do you see that? My second question, you announced this program to expedite growth. I don't think that is a formal guidance, but rather company's expectations in growing 50% or a little bit more than that in a year.
Considering Q1 performance and what you also saw in April and now beginning of May, do you believe that 50% is a feasible target? Do you keep that expectation of growing 50%? Do you think that you're going to be at a level that's above competition?
Hi, Guilherme, t hank you for your questions. About the take rate. Yes, it's right, about 10%. There were no take rate reductions, t here were no incentives there. We changed the marketplace platform, but we didn't take the average take rate we had before. It was just a change to give us more predictability, to improve the service level, but i t didn't change the marketplace economics. The major change was the co-sharing model for free shipping, just like I said in previous answers. As to the growth, we've been informing the market, our goal is to grow more than our top layers. In the first quarter, we grew more than we expected. Our expectation was about 80%. We grew 90% in the first quarter.
When we look at April numbers, just like I said in previous answers, when you have a two-year calculation, it was the best monthly growth for the company so far. We're very excited about keeping on growing above internal expectations. The focus is to grow more than our top competitors, gaining market share, but maintain the firm goal of generating cash.
Okay. Thank you very much, Raoni.
Thank you, Guilherme.
Our next question comes from Ms. Daniela from XP.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you. Very quick question about growth. Can you please add some color on how do you see that for 1P and 3P? Do you see any of these two growing more? Which categories do you think that will present a higher potential? Restaurants with the Shipp, and which categories do you foresee a growth, a stronger growth, for example, fashion? If you can please split up into categories. Thank you.
Hi, Daniela. Thank you for your questions. As to the breakdown between 1P and 3P, we have a hybrid platform. The balance there, we believe it's good for the business. It's healthy. A little over 60% on 3P, a little less than 40% in 1P. Throughout the quarters, we've been trying to optimize to the scenario. When you look at the fourth quarter, 1P grew more than 3P. As we promoted changes in the marketplace platform, that curve reverted. 3P grew more than 1P. Again, we're always looking at opportunities, trying to grow in both. There were opportunities for growth in both of them, 1P and 3P. In the long run, of course, given the characteristics of 3P, it's a long tail business model. We believe that 3P may grow more than 1P in the long run.
We are at a level of balance we feel comfortable with, and we'll keep on looking at opportunities to grow more in one or the other, depending on the quarter. As to the categories question, the grocery is the highlight. 53% of items sold in the quarter. It grows 8 times year-over-year, and we believe that there's room to keep growing even further. We're just expanding geographically. We started last year with two states. Now we are operating eight states. We signed partnership with the top three grocery store networks. We can have a national coverage now, 1,500 stores throughout the country. Undoubtedly, it's a category that will grow substantially. For other categories, you have the same dynamics of categories that are huge in physical retail, but they're not as relevant in online.
Garment industry, health, pet shops, these are categories that we see several opportunities to grow, both organically or through strategic acquisitions as well.
Excellent, v ery clear. Thank you.
Thank you, Danniela.
We now close the Q&A session. I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Raoni Lapagesse for his final remarks. Mr. Raoni, please go ahead.
Thank you for attending our earnings call. I would like to wish Happy Mother's Day for all of you next Sunday. Feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions. Thank you very much, g ood afternoon.
B2W Digital earnings release call has now ended. Thank you very much. Have a great afternoon.