Number of visits to Amazon in Latin America 2021, by country

Between January and September 2021, Brazil and Mexico were by far the Latin American countries with the highest number of visits to Amazon portals. With nearly 700 million visits, Amazon was the second most popular e-commerce site in the North American country, surpassed only by Argentine online marketplace Mercado Libre.

Amazon vs. Mercado Libre: a battle between giants

Founded at opposite poles of the American continent, U.S.-based e-commerce platform Amazon and Argentina's Mercado Libre have grown exponentially in several Latin American economies. In June 2020, amid the online sales boom triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, Mercado Libre ranked as the most visited e-commerce website in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico. However, in the latter country, Jeff Bezos's company has gone full steam in its bid for the top spot, investing heavily in its logistics arm. With over 50 million Mexican users at the end of 2019, Amazon inaugurated that year the MEX3 distribution center in Tepotzotlán, one of the largest in the country and the region, covering an area of 100,000 square meters.

Department stores strike back

In 2020, department stores throughout Latin America had to close their facilities, temporarily or permanently, due to the health crisis. In response, many of these businesses turned to e-commerce as a lifeline to stay afloat, leading many to get up to speed on digital sales solutions and driving their customers to continue shopping online. Illustrating this shift are department stores of Grupo Falabella, which saw its Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) – that is, the total value of merchandise sold online – more than double across the region between 2019 and 2020. Similarly, online sales by fellow Chilean company Ripley Corp, which also operates in Peru, reached almost half of the chain's total sales in 2020, compared to less than 18 percent the previous year.