In recent years, the online sales of e-commerce in Latin America have grown very fast, among which the e-commerce sales of Brazil, Mexico and Argentina are even more amazing, reaching 59 billion US dollars in 2015. Brazil, as the largest e-commerce market in Latin America, accounts for 42% of the market share in Latin America; Mexico is the second largest e-commerce market in Latin America, accounting for 15.6% of the market share in Latin America; Argentina, ranked third, accounts for 14.6% of the market share in Latin America.
Brazil is the only South American country among the seven Portuguese-speaking countries, and it is also the largest country in Latin America. With a population of more than 200 million, Brazil has become the ninth largest e-commerce retail market in the world. Cross-border sellers who want to go to the Latin American market must not miss this country.
1. Internet penetration rate ranks first in Latin America
In Latin America, Brazil ranks first in the number of Internet users. According to data released by Statista in October 2018, Brazil ranks fourth in the world with 119 million Internet users. As of January 2019, Brazil has 149.1 million Internet users, Mexico has 88 million Internet users, Argentina has 41.59 million Internet users, and Colombia has 34 million Internet users.
The average time Brazilians spend on the Internet also ranks first in Latin America, with an average of 25.7 hours per month online, far higher than the average of 7.1 hours in Latin America.
The urban population and the wealthy class in Brazil have easier access to the Internet. 59% of Brazilian urban residents have access to the Internet, and 26% of rural residents have access to the Internet. Among households with a household income higher than ten times the minimum wage, 97% have access to the Internet, while only 29% of households with a household income just reaching the minimum wage have access to the Internet.
2. Mobile e-commerce has become a new market trend
In Brazil, e-commerce is definitely a very promising industry. According to a report released by E-Bit, a Brazilian online consumer behavior research company, in 2016, Brazil’s e-commerce transaction volume was US$16.579 billion (approximately RMB 111.719 billion). The report predicts that in 2021, the annual growth rate of the country’s e-commerce transaction volume will reach 11.9%, and the market transaction volume will reach US$29.06 billion (approximately RMB 195.849 billion). The rapid popularization of smartphones has provided great support for the development of Brazilian e-commerce. In 2015, about 45% of Brazilian Internet users made payments through smartphones, while the data for the same period in 2014 was only 21%. In the next few years, the Brazilian e-commerce market will still have a large room for growth.
3. Local e-commerce occupies the mainstream of the market
Most of the top e-commerce platforms in Brazil currently adopt an online and offline integrated operation model. Among the top ten e-commerce websites with the largest traffic in Brazil in 2018, only Walmart and Alibaba’s Suzhitong are companies from outside Latin America, and the rest are local e-commerce companies in Brazil and Latin America. American e-commerce giants such as eBay and Amazon are also very concerned about the Brazilian market, but due to cultural differences, local services, customer experience and other factors, most Brazilian consumers tend to shop on local e-commerce websites.