Online trade booming in Mexico

In 2020, online retail purchases registered 81% increase in Mexico. Online best sellers are foodstuff deliveries, electrical items, and cosmetic products. What are the opportunities for investors?

 

Online retail sales in Mexico accounted for 316 billion Pesos (MXN) in 2020. This represents 9% of the country’s overall retail sales. Despite the online shopping trend in Mexico had already increased in 2019, experts from the E-Commerce Association (AMVO) see Covid-19 restrictions as the main reason for this rapid increase. Even though Mexicans are not sticking to lockdown as much as they did at the beginning of the pandemic, many are afraid of catching the disease, while shopping or queueing outside stores. Other reasons driving online sales include cost comparison as well as time saving. In average, Mexicans compare product prices in five different websites before buying them. 62% of online purchases were made by shopper via smartphones.

Need for new technologies!

To date, experts estimate that less than half of Mexican online retailers use a digital merchandise management system. The rapid online retailing upswing shows, above all, that there is a great need for merchandising management systems, as well as for associated hardware such as sensors and GPS equipment. These will make possible to better predict delivery delays. Big players such as Amazon and the Argentinean MercadoLibre Group are willing to invest in future technologies. Chatbots, for example, will be the artificial intelligence trend in the near future.

Investment in training and freight exchanges

As for online trade, there is an area of opportunity for small companies and government institutions for they have a lot to catch up. Not only hardware and software are essential but training to educate their staff is of great importance. Also, there is an ocean of opportunities for freight exchanges investors: despite some of them are active within the country, the complex requirements are not always requested.

 

Should you have further questions about the current economic development in Mexico, do not hesitate to contact us. Please find our services overview here.