Mercado Libre continues to expand: Chile’s figures surpass those of Argentina

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to Pauta.com, in the e-commerce business, the company experienced an expressive boom in the region. And one of the places where the company of Argentine businessman Marcos Galperin was best established was Chile.

“Chile is leading the region as the fastest growing country and that has been reflected somewhat in the figures we saw in Chile, where we doubled the number of customers we had, from 1.3 million in 2019 to 2.6 million in 2020,” commented Alan Meyer, general manager of Mercado Libre in Chile, in an interview with Pauta.com.

The businessman added that “we reached almost 100 million visits in August and these figures continued throughout the year. And we also had tremendous growth in the number of packages, with almost 3 million shipped in a single month,” he added.

Based on this performance, the challenges for the future are complex. In particular, considering that the vaccination process could support face-to-face purchases, albeit progressively.

However, Mercado Libre is optimistic. “We are confident that what was generated last year will be a new base, it will be a new floor,” said Meyer.

And he added that “I think that we will still be able to see growth, not as crazy as last year, but at least in the sense of the growth that e-commerce had had -with much smaller bases- in previous years, around 30%.”

Mercado Libre has already set goals for the coming years. “To double the growth we have as a market; in other words, if e-commerce grows between 30% – 40%, we should be growing approximately 60% – 70% – 80%, always beating the growth of the industry, because that means that our users will continue to prefer us,” said the executive.

And he added that “growth could be much higher and even start to approach three digits.”

One of the strategies to achieve these numbers is decentralized expansion in the trans-Andean country. More than two thirds of purchases are made in cities around Santiago de Chile and more than 15% of the products originate outside the capital.

“The challenge is how we can continue to accelerate this process, how we can help to ensure that faster delivery does not imply higher costs,” Meyer summarized.

On the other hand, Mercado Libre will open eight logistics exchange centers in Chile, which will have between 2,500 and 5,000 square meters of capacity.

According to Pauta.com, the project, which began to take shape in the middle of last year in order to begin its installation in the coming months, consists of the fact that, during the first half of the year, the company will begin the construction of eight logistics centers located in Antofagasta, Coquimbo, Valparaíso, Rancagua, Talca, Concepción, Temuco and Puerto Montt.

“This will enable us to reach all the regions of the country much more efficiently and in less time, and thus deliver purchases in less than a day,” said Meyer.

The initiative is part of the growth plan supported by the e-commerce platform in the country, which in turn implied a strategy that Mercado Libre announced several months ago, consisting of an investment of US$100 million in logistics for this year and next.

Source: Valor Analitik