According to Reuters on February 23, Shopee, an e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, has recently launched an application in Mexico, officially entering the Mexican market.
It is reported that Shopee's services in Mexico will be similar to its platforms in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, aiming to enable Mexican users to enjoy the same shopping experience as other market users. The platform will include electronic products, toys, clothing, household products and other categories. In addition, Shopee will provide free delivery services for Mexican users.
This is another step for Shopee to enter the Latin American market outside Brazil in October 2019. It is reported that in the early stage of Shopee's landing in Brazil, the platform was not open to all sellers, but adopted an invitation system, inviting some "high-quality" sellers to take the lead to settle in, so as to "polish the signboard". When facing local consumers in Brazil, Shopee still adopts localization strategy. For example, it launched an APP in Portuguese for Brazilian consumers and invited the well-known sports star C Luo to the platform.
Mexico: A fertile land for e-commerce?
For many Chinese, when talking about Mexico, most people may think of the warm and tearful Journey to the Dream Ring, the Mayan culture famous for the "Declaration of Doom", or the fragrant and crisp corn cakes. But what kind of land is Mexico for e-commerce platforms that go to gold?
First of all, Mexico is not only the second largest economy in Latin America, but also the second most populous country in Latin America. According to the statistics of Worldometer, the population of Mexico in 2020 has exceeded 128 million, and the median age is 29.2 years old. In contrast, the median age in China is 38.4 years, while the median age in Japan is 48.6 years. Young people are generally more dependent on the Internet and more receptive to online shopping.
From the perspective of Internet use, among the 128 million people, Mexico has 89 million active Internet users. According to the statistics of AMIPCI, Mexican people spend more than 7 hours online on average every day. In addition, as the "back garden" of the United States, the consumption habits of consumers in this country are also affected by the American consumption concept. In addition, the infrastructure of Mexico's e-commerce market is becoming more mature, and consumers are increasingly accepting online shopping.
In addition, the epidemic has undoubtedly brought development opportunities to Mexico's e-commerce track. Under the influence of the epidemic, isolation at home has become the normal life of people, which has led many consumers who were unwilling to buy online to change their shopping habits. This is also the reason for the rapid development of Mexican e-commerce in 2019-2020. Research shows that in the next four years, the Mexican e-commerce market is expected to grow at a compound growth rate of 6.5%, and the market size will reach 21.8 billion dollars by 2024.
In general, for e-commerce players, Mexico is an "ideal country" worthy of deep cultivation, no matter in terms of demographic dividend, consumers' purchasing power, Internet penetration and acceptance of online shopping.
However, it is not easy to gain a place in the Mexican market. Now let's analyze the difficulties Shopee and other "newcomers" may encounter in the Mexican market.
The Mexican market is also a "tough guy"
First of all, Mexican consumers prefer to pay by cash. According to statistics, one third of Mexican people still have no bank account. The reason is that many Mexican people are still worried about the potential security risks caused by publishing personal information on the Internet and paying through the Internet. Therefore, for cross-border e-commerce sellers who are digging gold in Mexico, whether they can accept cash payment is still a problem to be solved.
The second is logistics and transportation. For Asian e-commerce platforms, Latin America is really a far away place, and there will be various problems in the transportation link. For example, Mexico is very strict in import customs clearance, inspection, taxation and certification, and will face seizure if not careful. In addition, Mexico's logistics infrastructure, especially in remote areas, still needs to be improved. The scope of express delivery is still not wide enough, which also leads to low transport efficiency and high freight. In this regard, according to Reuters, Shopee will provide free distribution services for Mexican consumers, but it is still unable to guarantee the transportation efficiency.
In addition, Mexico is also a market full of experts. According to statistics, in the Mexican market, there are star brands such as Mercado Libre Mexico that have more than 100 million monthly visits, popular local "time-honored brand" Coppel, and well-known giants such as Fast Retailing, Amazon, Wal Mart, etc. in Mexico. In the face of these powerful predecessors, Shopee and other platforms want to gain a firm foothold. In addition to targeting the appetite of Mexican consumers and achieving localization as much as possible, it is also crucial to attract more sellers to settle in Mexico.
As of the press release, Shopee has not made any comments on the launch of the APP in Mexico and the subsequent strategic deployment.
Editor | Zhao Xiaochun
Figure | Graph Worm