Powerful growth will define the future of Latin America’s e-commerce market: 25% growth in volume between 2021 and 2025 with a projected volume of more than US$700 billion, according to Americas Market Intelligence (AMI) analysis from its LatAm E-commerce Data Library.
While there are more than 20 countries in Latin America, only a handful have developed strong e-commerce markets with significant amounts of transactions. The top 6 that AMI identified are:
- Brazil: E-commerce market worth $153 billion in 2021
- Mexico: E-commerce market worth $48.6 billion in 2021
- Colombia: E-commerce market worth $22.4 billion in 2021
- Argentina: E-commerce market worth $18 billion in 2021
- Chile: E-commerce market worth $15.65 billion in 2021
- Peru: E-commerce market worth $13 billion in 2021
The LatAm E-Commerce Data Library
Strategic data on market volumes, purchase habits, payment methods, demand drivers and more for +15 countries
Between 2021 and 2025, the e-commerce growth rates (CAGR) for these markets are projected to be:
- Brazil: 22% growth in its e-commerce market by 2025
- Mexico: 24% growth in its e-commerce market by 2025
- Colombia: 26% growth in its e-commerce market by 2025
- Argentina: 32% growth in its e-commerce market by 2025
- Chile: 19% growth in its e-commerce market by 2025
- Peru: 21% growth in its e-commerce market by 2025
Online retail in LatAm has achieved 15% of total retail, up from 6% pre-pandemic, according to Americas Market Intelligence
Americas Market Intelligence
Defining E-Commerce in LatAm Markets
This is a key point, because often the definition of e-commerce in LatAm and other markets can be vague or restricted to specific merchant verticals or payment methods. For the purposes of AMI’s analysis, e-commerce was defined as all online purchases of goods and services, regardless of the device or payment method used. The data employed in AMI’s analysis includes:
- Cross-border purchases made with locally issued credit and debit cards
- Domestic spend, on internationally-enabled credit cards and all locally issued payment methods
- B2C and some B2C commerce made with a credit/debit card or that is processed via an e-commerce gateway
- Physical products and services, such as retail (physical products purchased directly from a merchant or marketplace),
- Travel (such as plane tickets, car rentals, hotels, etc.)
- Digital goods (such as streaming, gaming and gambling)
- Ride hailing and delivery apps
- Other services (recurring payments such as monthly bills, insurance payments, school tuition, taxes, etc.)
Excluded from this analysis were payments made by international visitors and B2B e-commerce done via wire transfer or paid invoice NOT captured in an e-commerce gateway.
In 2021 cross-border e-commerce accounted for 13% of total e-commerce purchases in Latin America, representing $54 bn in sales.
Other Key Datapoints
Beyond sheer volume and growth, AMI’s analysis also look at different aspects of e-commerce in Latin America. Among its findings are that:
- While credit cards were used in 52% of e-commerce purchases in Latin America in 2021, AMI projects that by 2025 their share will go down by 5 percentage points
- The forecasted CAGR through 2025 in Buy Now Pay Later will be 66%. By 2025, BNPL will reach $14 bn in LatAm e-commerce sales
- AMI forecasted that Pix will reach $114 bn in sales by 2025. Pix forecasted CAGR through 2025 is 46%.
- In 2020, mobile surpassed 50% of total e-commerce volume in LatAm. By 2025 AMI projects that 78% of e-commerce transactions in Latin America will be done with a mobile device
- 86% of e-commerce transactions made in Latin America in 2022 will be domestic, the remainder cross-border
Going Further
Beyond growth projections, AMI specializes in research and market intelligence for the LatAm e-commerce in a number of key areas:
- Identifying the major payment methods used in different Latin American e-commerce markets to help merchants with strategic planning, market entry and market expansion
- Helping merchants understand the cross-border e-commerce potential in different Latin American markets and the practices that can increase cross-border sales
- Using artificial intelligence and machine learning to help merchants analyze their customer data for a deeper understanding of e-commerce shopper behavior and tendencies so as to refine their marketing tactics, messaging and consumer outreach
Contact us if your company has specific data, market research or market intelligence needs regarding the e-commerce market in Latin America or in specific markets such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru.
