Retail in Asia

In Trends

Chinese online retailer eyes booming Latin American market

Following the success of Internet giants like Alibaba Group, Chinese companies are now looking to replicate to expand business in geographic

Chinese online retail is headed in the booming Latin American market, specifically Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, which has a combined online population of over 190 million users.

Following the success of Internet giants like Alibaba Group, Chinese companies are now looking to make their mark in geographic areas not yet saturated like North America and Western Europe. There are, however, challenges ahead.

Jorge Chong, manager of Comprame.com, the first Chinese online retailer to focus only on Latin American countries, some of the main barriers that affect the growth of online retailers from China in the region are: language barriers, mistrust of online deals, long delivery times and lack of credit card usage.

Statistics show that the online penetration in Latin America will reach 600 million in 2014 and analysts predict that the region will become the fastest growing online buyer in the next two years, mainly due to the increasing broadband penetration following the trend of Asia.

"International e-commerce will replace traditional commerce by 2024 as language barriers are broken and consumers and manufacturers communicate directly and do business online thanks to high technology tools like online translators and a mature shipping system," Chong said.

Comprame.com, operated by Latin Internet Technology Co. Ltd., is one of the first Chinese retailers to focus their sales only to Spanish speaking countries.

Chong said they offer a fully customized website for Latin American visitors and employ non-Chinese customer service representatives that work from China and also employ local employees in key markets like Colombia and Venezuela.