E-Commerce ‘Gold Rush’ in LATAM

People are starting to take note of the e-Commerce opportunities in Latin America, especially Brazil.

We’ve just read a piece in Entrepreneur written by Harry Whitehouse, co-founder and CTO of Endicia. His readership is in north America of course and he’s making the point, that just south of the border, there’s a huge business opportunity, one that we see every day at allpago.

Whitehouse highlights a study by the Internet Retailer which shows that LATAM is the world’s second fastest growing e-Commerce market.

What’s more, he says, in 2013 alone, Amazon clocked up sales in the region of $475m.

Star in the crown though is Brazil, being the tech-savvy country it is, offers a huge potential for US merchants. He does admit that getting access to the Brazilian market is tough, but he offers some advice.

First up is making an effort to understand how Brazilians shop. Two things to bear in mind here. Most Brazilians begin to search for products via a search engine, so any company that wants to make an impact, has to have good search rankings. And, the most popular goods which are bought in Brazil online are consumer electronics, music, movies, books, shoes and apparel.

Second, choose the right shipping companies that have a good network in the country and that can be trusted.

Finally, get the right systems in place to let the business run efficiently. Especially tricky is the customs regulations which need to be built into a company’s pricing structure. A flat import tax of 60% is imposed by Brazil on the cost of goods up to $3,000.

Which is why, of course, you need a trusted and secure payment platform such as allpago, with all the administrative and legal support we can offer, because no matter how good the opportunity is, if you can’t get the money safely and without a great deal of hassle, then all your efforts will have been wasted.

About allpago international

allpago international is the leading payment provider for the LATAM region. allpago provides the most relevant local payment methods through one API and one single platform. Allpago offers the best conversion rates ensuring state-of-the-art technology and legal advice necessary for a successful e-Commerce operation in Latin America.

allpago enables start-ups to Fortune 500 companies to offer the necessary local payment methods in the Latin American market, which account for around 80% of their revenues. Current clients include Art.com, Getty Images, Intel Security McAfee, Norton Symantec, Paylogic, Sumup, Teamviewer and many other leading payment and digital companies.

Reference:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246140

Image courtesy of pakorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net