With the popularity of cross-border e-commerce, a large number of emerging platforms have begun to compete for the market, and some of them have achieved remarkable results. We introduce some emerging platforms in the hope that they can provide some help and reference for cross-border e-commerce sellers.
Mercado Libre Platform
Mercade Libre is an online transaction and payment platform in Latin America. The company provides its customers with buying, selling, payment and collection mechanisms for e-commerce transactions. MercadoLibre was founded in 1999. Since 2015, MercadoLibre has opened its platform to international sellers and officially started cross-border e-commerce business. It has successively opened the United States and China, and set up branches to recruit American sellers who originally sold goods on eBay and Amazon US to sell goods on mercadolibre. Mercadolibre is the largest e-commerce platform in South America, covering 18 countries in South America, including Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, etc. Mercadolibre’s consumers are mostly middle- and high-income people. The products include daily consumer goods, educational supplies, banking and financial support services, chemical products, IT software & communications, agricultural products & food, manufacturing, and business services. In the international market, daily consumer goods and educational supplies are the most popular, and the sales of these two categories of products are more than twice the sales of business services and manufacturing.
MercadoLibre can upload product titles and detailed descriptions in English. The platform will automatically translate the seller’s title and description into Spanish and Portuguese. Products need to be uploaded through Tongtu erp, or directly connected to the platform for API. There is no limit on the number of SKUs uploaded, but new sellers are limited to 1,000 SKUs. If the number exceeds 1,000, you need to contact MercadoLibre staff to view the data and eliminate the restrictions until the platform verifies the data. Once the initial data verification is completed, the seller will be able to upload more SKUs. The seller’s product pricing is displayed in the local currency. MercadoLibre’s commission is uniformly 16%, and the payment is settled through ESG. The logistics time is 48 hours, and it is delivered within 6 to 14 days. There are warehouses in Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Hong Kong.
The main platforms in South America are MercadoLibre, self-built websites, Alibaba, Amazon, OLX, Facebook, and eBay. More than 50% of Latin American sellers sell products on at least one e-commerce platform, and 20% of sellers sell on two or more platforms. MercadoLibre is a household name in Latin America and is one of the most visited e-commerce websites in the region, with a status equivalent to eBay. Last year, MercadoLibre had nearly 30 million sellers and buyers, accounting for about 5% of the population in Latin America. As more and more people in Latin America access the Internet, MercadoLibre has a bright future. For sellers who enter the MercadoLibre platform, the biggest challenge is limited market access, including tariffs and non-tariff barriers, investment restrictions, localization requirements, etc. In addition, other obstacles include poor logistics facilities, unclear laws and regulations, and limited online payments. However, South America is an emerging e-commerce market with great potential. Currently, e-commerce in South America is growing rapidly at a rate of 20% per year, with hundreds of millions of consumers keen on online shopping, so it is necessary to consider carefully and comprehensively.