Latin America’s e-commerce in numbers

It’s no news that Latin America celebrates its strongest performance of the last 20 years. However, it is new, that the Latin American market is increasingly shopping online and that e-commerce growth rates will be higher every year.

The numbers speak for themselves. I’ve read some articles and researches performed by Internet Retailer, Forbes, Forrester, comScore, among others and this is the info I found:

About 113 million Latin American consumers accessed the Internet in January 2011, which represents up 15% from the same month a year ago (comScore Inc).

Brazil stands as the region’s largest online market, with 40.53 million web users, up 20% from last year.

Venezuala’s online population increased 27% year over year, to 2.91 million.

Colombia’s online population grew 24% in January, to 12.41 million.

Mexico had a growth rate of 21%, to 18.11 million users.

On average, web users in Latin America spent 24 hours online in January, visiting the web 50 times during the month and viewing 1,795 pages of content. Brazilian consumers spent the most time online, 25.8 hours, and viewed the most content, 2,077 pages, and had the highest average monthly visits per consumer, 55.5. Consumers in Argentina also exceeded the monthly average for time spent online, with 25.5 hours, as did consumers in Mexico, with 25.3 hours. Consumers in Puetro Rico spent the least amount of time online, 18 hours.

So, if we take all this information and compare it with stats and numbers generated by the US population in the same period, the first thing that pops up is that Latin America is exactly where you have to be now that e-commerce is blooming!

As per an article published by Internet Retailer: “E-commerce sales in Brazil will reach $22.0 billion in 2016, up 178% from $7.9 billion in 2010, according to a new study from Forrester Research Inc. Forrester’s Latin American Online Retail Forecast says much of Brazil’s near-term e-commerce growth will come from sales of consumer electronics, which now account for about 37% of online retail purchases. The report notes that the country’s 81 million web users are active in social networks and expect free shipping offers and interest-free payment plans for their online retail purchases. Mexico also appears poised for significant e-commerce growth. Online sales will reach $3.4 billion in 2016, up 209% from $1.1 billion in 2010, the report says. The report estimates that about a third of the Mexican population, or about 40 million consumers, are online, and that many Mexican consumers remain worried about being defrauded by online retailers.”

Forrester advises that “eBusiness executives looking to expand online sales into Latin America must pay attention to import-duty hurdles, focus localization efforts on language, payment, and fulfillment options, as well as watch local and national events that can affect online sales and business overall.”

Evidence shows that Latin America is a promising online market place, that will keep growing and growing. If you are looking into expanding your business to this region, the moment to act is now!

Contact us HERE to learn more about our eCommerce services for Latin America.