Mercado Libre Now Has Own-brand Air Freight Fleet in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Mercado Libre, the largest e-commerce and financial services technology group in Latin America, now has its own fleet of aircraft in Brazil to deliver the orders made on its website. Meli Air comprises four aircraft operated by different airlines that will help the group reduce package delivery times in the country, in addition to increasing next-day delivery capacity for products stored at its distribution centers in São Paulo and Bahia.

“We want to have the best logistics in Brazil and increase the number of next-day deliveries. The consistent and robust expansion of our logistics network is critical for the maintenance of service excellence and satisfaction of the end consumer – both sellers and buyers in our platform,” says Leandro Bassoi, Vice-President of Mercado Envios, the logistics arm of the technology giant. “In addition to enhancing the purchasing experience in Brazil, we expect that the fleet will contribute to enhancing the brand’s visual recognition associated with the attributes of trust and logistical efficiency”.

This is Mercado Libre’s latest investment to expand its logistics network in Brazil, the most populous and wealthiest country in the Americas. The aircraft came just in time for BlackFriday, the promotional Friday which is the local trade’s main hope to try to recover some of the losses during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Since 2019, Mercado Libre has partnered with Brazilian airlines. During the pandemic, it helped keeping the freight industry alive by shipping large volumes of purchases by air. In 2020, Mercado Libre plans to invest R$4 billion in Brazil, the largest figure ever spent in the country.

This sum should be even higher in 2021. In addition to expanding its own freight fleet, these investments involve the installation of new distribution centers and cross-dockings, and the development of new tools to reduce delivery time and cost of the marketplace.

Before the crisis, the projection for the Brazilian e-commerce growth was of 18 percent. This figure should be much higher. In one semester alone, Brazilian e-commerce grew by levels unseen in the past 20 years. According to an Ebit/Nielsen research conducted in partnership with Elo, online sales revenue increased by 47 percent in the first semester, totaling R$38.8 billion. In all, 90.8 million orders were placed between January and June 2020.

The e-commerce peak occurred between April 5th and June 28th, when most Brazilian cities were under measures to contain the flow of people. Over this period, the number of orders grew by 70 percent compared to 2019.

Source: Exame