Latin American cross-border e-commerce market: The strategic layout of Amazon and Alibaba

The Latin American market has attracted the attention of global e-commerce giants with its huge development potential and young consumer groups. Although the Southeast Asian market has received widespread attention, Latin America is regarded as the next fast-growing e-commerce emerging market due to its demographic dividend, rising Internet penetration and widespread use of social media.

Amazon’s layout in Latin America

Brazil: The Beginning of the Amazon

Since 2012, Amazon has gradually entered the Latin American market, first launching a Kindle e-book store in Brazil, then expanding to physical book sales, and finally opening the platform to third-party sellers in 2017. By the end of the same year, more than 1,700 sellers had settled on Amazon Brazil. In addition, Amazon also plans to increase its electronic product categories, including TVs, computers, mobile phones and accessories.

Mexico: Cooperation with Oxxo

In 2015, Amazon officially entered the Mexican market. Taking into account local consumers’ preference for cash payments, Amazon has partnered with Oxxo convenience stores to launch a gift card service and allow customers to pay for online purchases in-store. This move significantly increased consumer trust.

In 2017, Amazon launched Prime membership service in Mexico, providing free delivery of more than 20 million products and promising one-day delivery in some areas. The following year, in order to shorten delivery time, Amazon further strengthened its partnership with Oxxo.

Although Amazon has made some progress in Latin America, its expansion rate has been relatively slow due to cultural differences and other factors.

Alibaba’s Latin American strategy

Trade cooperation between China and Latin America

For a long time, China and Latin American countries have had close economic and trade relations. Alibaba has seen this and decided to increase investment in Latin America. In 2013, AliExpress, a subsidiary of Alibaba, transformed into an overseas shopping platform and achieved great success in Brazil.

Expand the Argentina and Mexico markets

In 2017, Alibaba signed e-commerce cooperation agreements with Argentina and Mexico respectively, aiming to promote the entry of products from the two countries into the Chinese market and share logistics resources. Jack Ma also said during his visits to these two countries that Alibaba will be committed to long-term development in the Latin American market.

Conclusion

Although Amazon and Alibaba both see the potential of the Latin American market, how to effectively enter this market still requires time and strategic adjustments. In the future, the two companies will continue to explore development paths suitable for their respective situations.