As large e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and AliExpress have successively settled in Chile, Chile Post has also established partnerships with more and more logistics companies to facilitate cross-border online shopping. Half of Chile’s e-commerce transactions come from Asia. Among them, AliExpress, a subsidiary of Alibaba, has become the largest distributor of Chinese and Asian products in Chile, competing with Amazon and MercadoLibre locally.
Similar to Brazil and Argentina, logistics and mobile e-commerce have always been the biggest obstacles that the Chilean e-commerce market needs to overcome. However, in comparison, Chile’s e-commerce logistics has been more streamlined. In 2019, Chile ranked 42nd in the world in logistics and distribution, Argentina ranked 60th, and Brazil ranked 65th.
In addition, sellers also need to consider language and time difference issues in advance.
A Chinese seller who used to run a Chilean B2B website said that there are currently two major challenges in doing cross-border e-commerce business in Chile.
1. Time difference
China and Chile are far apart, with a time difference of 12 hours (summer) or 13 hours (winter). If you want to keep in close contact with buyers, sellers have to get up at three or four in the morning every day to reply to emails. Once delayed, it may cause a delay of two days or more.
2. Translation issues
Portuguese or Spanish are not popular in China, and it is a little difficult to find truly proficient, cooperative and reasonably charged translators or translation companies. But the translation must be accurate. For example, transactions in categories such as mobile phones and wines have many details that need to be communicated, and they need to be correctly translated for better communication.
In general, the potential of Chile’s e-commerce market has not been fully explored, but the soaring growth rate of e-commerce scale and strong international status have made Chile one of the top e-commerce ecosystems in Latin America. Well-known companies including Amazon, Walmart and AliExpress continue to dominate, and small startups are competing fiercely. As more and more Chileans access the Internet through smartphones, the next challenge facing Chile will be how to achieve faster delivery in logistics throughout the country and increase the penetration rate of mobile e-commerce. With strong economic growth, Chile’s e-commerce market will undoubtedly be able to cope well with new challenges.