RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, giant Chinese firm Alibaba may open a distribution center for the AliExpress online store soon in Brazil. The “medium-term” prospect is currently under study by the company, according to the brand representative in Latin America, Ken Huang.
The executive points out that Brazil is one of the company’s five main markets and that the country is appreciated for this, but there are still a number of obstacles to broadening this presence. The great challenges involve logistics: orders can take a month to cross the world until they reach consumers.
The distribution center could use partners and suppliers to ensure that the most popular products are cheaper and have reduced delivery time. This would be a means of competing with national brands or even stronger names in the industry, such as Amazon.
Huang further commented on the initiative of a temporary physical store, which was opened in Curitiba, capital of Paraná, in partnership with the Ebanx payment processing system. For now, he denied any specific plans for a fixed establishment and said that it is still unclear whether the pop-up project was a success.
Finally, the representative also put an end to plans for Brazilians to sell products on the platform – this still requires legal, bureaucratic and regulatory steps that are currently being “assessed” by the company.