Powerful growth will define the future of Latin America’s e-commerce market: 29% growth in volume between 2020 and 2024 with a projected volume of more than US$580 billion, according to Americas Market Intelligence (AMI) analysis from its 2020-2024 LatAm E-Commerce Datapack.
While there are more than 20 countries in Latin America, only a handful have developed strong e-commerce markets with significant amounts of transactions. The top 6 that AMI identified are:
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Brazil: E-commerce market worth $147.6 billion in 2021
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Mexico: E-commerce market worth $49.6 billion in 2021
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Colombia: E-commerce market worth $18.8 billion in 2021
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Argentina: E-commerce market worth $17.1 billion in 2021
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Chile: E-commerce market worth $16.5 billion in 2021
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Peru: E-commerce market worth $9.9 billion in 2021
By 2024 75% of e-commerce purchases in Latin America will be done with a mobile device.
Defining E-Commerce in LatAm Markets
This is a key point, because often the definition of e-commerce in LatAm and other markets can be vague or restricted to specific merchant verticals or payment methods. For the purposes of AMI’s analysis, e-commerce was defined as all online purchases of goods and services, regardless of the device or payment method used. The data employed in AMI’s analysis includes:
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Purchases made using all locally issued payment methods
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Cross-border purchases made with locally issued credit and debit cards
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B2C and some B2C commerce made with a credit/debit card or that is processed via an e-commerce gateway
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Physical products and services, such as retail (physical products purchased directly from a merchant or marketplace),
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Travel (such as plane tickets, car rentals, hotels, etc.)
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Digital goods (such as ride hailing services, delivery apps, streaming)
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Other services (recurring payments such as monthly bills, insurance payments, school tuition, taxes, etc.)Excluded from this analysis were payments made by international visitors and B2B e-commerce done via wire transfer or paid invoice NOT captured in an e-commerce gateway.
In 2020 debit cards accounted for 14% of e-commerce purchases in Latin America.
Other Key Datapoints
Beyond sheer volume and growth, AMI’s analysis also look at different aspects of e-commerce in Latin America. Among its findings are that:
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86% of e-commerce transactions made in Latin America in 2021 will be domestic, the remainder cross-border
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While in 2019 more than 56% of e-commerce transactions in Latin America were made with a desktop computer, in 2020 the balance shifted to mobile representing 55.3% of transactions and desktop at less than 45%
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By 2024 AMI projects that more than 75% of e-commerce transactions in Latin America will be done with a mobile device
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While credit cards were used in 56% of e-commerce purchases in Latin America in 2020, AMI projects that by 2024 their share will go down by 2% while the share of bank transfers used for e-commerce will more than double
Going Further
Beyond growth projections, AMI specializes in research and market intelligence for the LatAm e-commerce in a number of key areas:
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Identifying the major payment methods used in different Latin American e-commerce markets to help merchants with strategic planning, market entry and market expansion
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Helping merchants understand the cross-border e-commerce potential in different Latin American markets and the practices that can increase cross-border sales
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Using artificial intelligence and machine learning to help merchants analyze their customer data for a deeper understanding of e-commerce shopper behavior and tendencies so as to refine their marketing tactics, messaging and consumer outreach
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