Compared to emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East, there are not many e-commerce platforms in Latin America. There are only three local e-commerce platforms in Latin America, namely MercadoLibre, B2W, and Buscape.
If Chinese sellers want to enter the Latin American market, in addition to choosing China’s Alibaba and the United States’ Amazon, local e-commerce platforms in Latin America can also be considered. The following are several more representative e-commerce platforms in Latin America recommended by the author.
1. MercadoLibre
MerecadoLibre is the largest e-commerce platform in Latin America. The website has more than 150 million visits per month, and the market covers 16 countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Chile. MercadoLibre has expanded its mobile point-of-sale (POS) transaction business, and its MercadoPago online payment tool allows users to store cash in their accounts. MercadoLibre’s market share in Latin America is higher than eBay and Amazon, and is called a rising e-commerce giant by foreign media. MercadoLibre now has 160 million users, equivalent to 50% of Internet users in Latin America.
2. B2W
B2W is the largest e-commerce company in Brazil, with an astonishing expansion speed. So far, it has merged nearly ten Brazilian e-commerce websites. Its three platforms, Americanas, Submarino and Shoptime, have become the benchmark of the Brazilian e-commerce industry, occupying more than 50% of the market share of Brazil’s online retail industry.
3. Americanas
Americanas is a comprehensive shopping e-commerce website in Brazil, with nearly 500,000 products on sale, 10 million customers and more than 200,000 B2C and B2B sellers. Its parent company, LojasAmericanas, was founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1929 and has hundreds of offline retail stores in Brazil. On March 11, 2019, Americanas International Station (Americanas Mundo) was launched, allowing Chinese sellers to settle in.
4. Linio
Linio was founded in 2012 and is one of the largest B2C e-commerce platforms in Latin America. Its business scope covers countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Panama and Ecuador, with a total population of about 350 million people, of which Mexico is the largest market. Linio currently has more than 2,000 employees, and the website has 35 million visits per month. The platform currently has 27,000 sellers, covering 60 categories of products and more than 6 million SKUs.
5. Buscape
Buscape is the most famous price comparison website in Brazil. Founded in 1999, the platform provides price information from more than 100 websites in Latin America, supports sellers to display products on the website, and customers compare prices and conduct transactions. Revenue mainly comes from sellers’ annual fees, online advertising, pay-per-click and transaction commissions. As the platform continued to grow, in 2006, Buscape acquired its competitor Bondfaro, headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. In 2009, Naspers invested US$342 million to acquire 91% of Buscape’s shares and included it as part of its market expansion plan.