Ecommerce in Latin America brings in $84 billion each year. There are currently over 190 million online shoppers in Latin America, and that number is expected to climb very quickly in the coming years. Out of the 29% of the population that have embraced online shopping, 25% come from Brazil, and as they have the largest GDP, it makes sense that they have had the most significant growth recently.
There are currently over 190 million online shoppers in Latin America, and that number is expected to climb very quickly in the coming years.
Huge Potential
With such a young and expanding population, e-commerce in Africa has everything needed for growth and massive expansion throughout the continent. We may not be on par with the United States, but we are catching up. We have made a list of the three biggest online marketplaces in Africa to help readers get up to speed with what’s happening. As most Africans interact with the internet via a mobile phone, businesses in the e-commerce sector must have good mobile apps that are easy to interact with.
Mercardo Libre, Linio, Shoppe, and eBay are the only pure-play marketplaces in Latin America. Mercado Libre is currently the biggest online retail store in all 20 Latin American countries. Amazon is the second-largest but still nowhere close to Mercado Libre, with four times Amazon’s monthly visitors.
Below we have put together a breakdown of the top online marketplaces in Latin America from least visits to most. It is clear who the winner is in this particular race.
eBay
Everyone has heard of eBay – a worldwide marketplace that has been in business for over 25 years. One of the first to offer an online auction model that many have tried to replicate over the years. With 9.9 million visitors a month, most of which are from Mexico, Latin American users do go to eBay for specific items but often prefer to go to the larger marketplaces.
Linio
Linio pulls in a combined 13.4 million visits each month from Colombia, Mexico, Chile, and Peru. Brazil is not included in the list of visitors as Linio is exclusively a Spanish platform. Linio has a sister company called Falabella based in Argentina. Linio is also enabled to help English speaking buyers and sellers with an entire dedicated team to help translate and communicate with customers in English.
Shoppe
Over 41 million users visit this online retailer every month. Founded in 2015, Shoppe hails from Singapore, and they’ve grown to be the largest online retailer in all of Southeast Asia. It has spread further to Colombia, Chile, and Mexico.
Mercado Libre
Companies worldwide use the Cross-Border Trade program to sell their products on Mercardo Libre as this platform has access to an audience in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Chile. Prices are usually set in dollars, and instant translations make the process easy and free of any start up hassles. You can also list items for free at any time. Employing over 15,000 people, it is easy to see why Mercardo Libre is the biggest online marketplace in Latin America.
This marketplace hosts 668 million visits monthly, and it is one of the marketplaces modeled after eBay that have taken over the market. Mercado Libre has evolved with the times and has been flexible in its growth, garnering trust within its target audience. Known for being a pure-play marketplace, they have grown their brand to include several other small integral businesses. These include Mercado Ads, Mercardo Envíos, which handles shipping, and Mercardo Pago for payments through an online portal.
