A recent survey from Panorama Mobile Time/Opinion Box surveyed more than 1,400 Brazilian mobile shoppers that own smartphones and access the Internet to get at their shopping habits. Here’s a look at some of the key findings.
1. Seven out of 10 Brazilian Smartphone Users Order Physical Products with Their Phones
While the common perception has been that digital purchases (mobile top-ups, music, software) dominate mobile buys in Brazil and Latin America, the results from this survey run counter to this. While only 41% of Brazilian smartphone users bought physical products — such as food, clothes, cosmetics — with their devices in 2015, in September 2017 around 7 in 10 Brazilian smartphone users (71%) used their devices to buy physical products.
2. The Top 10 Products Brazilians Order via Mobile Apps in 2017
According to the survey results, the following 10 products are the ones that Brazilian smartphone owners report ordering via an app or a mobile site:
- Electronics (50%)
- Clothes (42%)
- Clothing accessories (42%)
- Books (32%)
- Household appliances (32%)
- Food (31%)
- Cosmetics or personal hygiene products (29%)
- Meals (27%)
- Household items (24%)
- Sporting goods (23%)
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3. Credit Cards Still Dominate Mobile Payments in Brazil
According to the survey results, 71% of Brazilian smartphone users make mobile payments with a smartphone, while 42% use the boleto bancario and 19% use digital wallets.
4. Mobile Beauty Service Orders Spike by Nearly 5 Times
In 2016 around 7% of Brazilian smartphone users ordered beauty services via an app or mobile site—but in March 2017 year 15% of them used their phones to order beauty services. But when surveyed in September 2017, 32% of Brazilian smartphone owners said they used their phones to order beauty services—nearly 5 times more than the percentage in 2016.
5. Americanas.com and Mercado Livre Are the 2 Top Mobile Commerce Apps
These two apps are tied in terms of their ranking preference among smartphone users in Brazil, with 33% each. Rounding out the top 10 are iFood (18%), AliExpress (17%), Submarino (14%), Magazine Luiza (13%), Netshoes (9%), Casas Bahia (8%), Wish (8%) and OLX (6%).
6. Brazilian Mobile Shoppers Are Ordering More Rides and Food with their Phones
The amount of Brazilian mobile shoppers using their phones to contact ride hailing services went up from 37% in March 2016 to 58% in March 2017. In the same period, 9% more Brazilian mobile shoppers used their devices to request food deliveries. Other services that Brazilians ordered via their phones also increased, but more modestly: a 4% increase in hotel or apartment rentals and a 1% increase in purchasing event tickets.
7. Uber Still Leads All Ride Hailing Apps in Brazil
More than 8 out of 10 (86%) of the Brazilian mobile users surveyed prefer Uber, while only 6% said 99 was their favorite ride-hailing app—down from 19% in 2016. Cabify went up a little, going from being a favorite among 1.8% of Brazilian mobile users in 2016 to 3.5% in 2017.
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Go Deeper
While this study offers some interesting results about Brazilian mobile users, our Payments practice team can help e-commerce merchants, financial institutions and other professionals maximize their Brazilian or LatAm revenues with deep data on the region and analysis to drive big decisions.
To learn more about Brazilian e-commerce, check out our market report or contact us to request one of our detailed datapacks.
You can also explore some of our related resources at no cost, such as Solving E-Commerce Obstacles in Latin America, our e-commerce whitepaper on the region, and our 2018 Forecast for Latin America.
