eCommerce in Latin America Showing Hypergrowth

Interest in digital services such as video streaming is on the rise among Latin American consumers as online shopping quickly gains in popularity in the region.

A recent study from global payments solutions provider EBANX predicted eCommerce sales in Latin America not only would rise 37% year-over-year from 2020 to 2021, but also maintain a yearly growth rate of 30% until 2025, making the region’s eCommerce sector a hypergrowth market.

Juliana Etcheverry, who directs Latin American expansion and strategic alliances for EBANX, said recently that these developments have caused international companies from already-saturated eCommerce markets, such as China and the U.S., to look to Latin America with heightened interest.

Regional eCommerce growth is putting these international players on equal competitive footing with local brands, she added, meaning that finding ways to stand out from the digital crowd is critical for both local and  international companies.

Meanwhile, telecommunications, mobile and other services are competing to engage their customers as digital streaming becomes more popular in Latin America, said Navdeep Saini, co-founder and CEO of Video-as-a-Service provider DistroScale, parent company of DistroTV.

Available in 60 countries, DistroTV recently launched its free streaming service — available on smart TVs and supported by ads — in six Latin American nations.

“What’s happened in Latin America is … a lot of the mobile companies or telecoms, they’ve bought the broadband,” Saini told PYMNTS. “So … to compete with cable, they’ve started delivering [these] value-added services [or] access to some streaming services.”

Offering a smooth onboarding experience is a vital first step in attracting consumers’ attention and loyalty as the digital subscriptions market grows in Latin America. This includes offering easy, convenient payment experiences, as frictions in paying could cause consumers to abandon their services for other alternatives.

To learn more about the state of eCommerce, streaming and other trends in Latin America, download your copy of The Global Merchants’ Guide To Latin America, a collaboration between PYMNTS and EBANX.