1. Increase in the number of local overseas shoppers
In recent years, the number of overseas shoppers in Brazil has exploded. 54% of Brazilian online shoppers shop on cross-border e-commerce platforms in other countries, and imported goods mainly come from the United States and China. In 2017, 22.4 million Brazilian consumers made cross-border purchases, with each consumer spending an average of US$36.8. Brazilian consumers choose cross-border shopping mainly because the goods are cheaper. Usually, the prices of local goods are three times more expensive than those on international websites. For example, the prices of iPhones and game consoles in Brazil are the most expensive in the world. In addition, the product variety of international websites is also richer. Local consumers also like to buy goods from Chinese cross-border sellers. China’s hottest online shopping festival “Double Eleven” has also become a shopping festival in Brazil. They often shop online for Chinese clothing, accessories, beauty and health products, home appliances, electronic products and online game products. In the past five years, Brazilians have become more and more fond of Chinese goods. They feel that the quality of the goods they buy exceeds their expectations, and they believe that Chinese goods have more advantages in price and more modern designs.
2. E-commerce infrastructure is gradually improving
The current situation of weak infrastructure in Brazil has brought great challenges to the development of e-commerce. Brazil’s backbone logistics is relatively complete, but the conditions of the “last mile” are very poor. Despite the supplementation of global express companies such as DHL, UPS, TNT, and FedEx, the Brazilian state-owned enterprise, Brazil Post, is the only one in the country. In general, Brazil’s e-commerce logistics still has problems such as high prices, poor services, low efficiency, and many errors, which has brought huge obstacles to the development of the local e-commerce industry. In Brazil, 87% of e-commerce websites transport goods through Brazil Post, and 36% of e-commerce websites choose to use professional express companies. These express companies generally have no restrictions on the size of packages and can provide different services based on delivery speed, price requirements, etc., but the prices are often very high. The rise of regional logistics companies has had a very large impact on the Brazilian logistics market. Although the market share is only 3%, because of its simple distribution procedures, e-commerce companies can provide “next-day delivery” services to some regions, and the freight costs are reduced by 20% to 40% compared with national logistics companies with complex procedures.
E-commerce platforms are springing up like mushrooms
Compared to other regions in Latin America, Brazil has slightly more e-commerce platforms, such as Dafti (the largest fashion e-commerce website in Brazil), Peixe Urbano (the largest group-buying website in Brazil), OLX (the Brazilian version of “58.com”), MercadoLibre (the Brazilian version of “Taobao”), and Buscape (the largest price comparison website in Brazil). In addition, there are AliExpress, Americanas, Bomnegocio, Submarino, Netshoes, Admngronline, Walmart and other online shopping websites commonly used by Brazilian consumers.