“Brazil B2C E-Commerce Market 2017” is the title of a new report published by Germany-based secondary market research specialist yStats.com. The report tells of the continued growth of online retail in Brazil, citing double-digit growth rate predictions through 2020. The publication also highlights the latest market trends, ranks the top market players and sheds light on online shoppers’ preferences with regard to product categories and payment methods.
The largest online retail market in Latin America, Brazil is also projected to maintain its rank of fourth among the top emerging economies in B2C E-Commerce sales through 2025. Although the number of Internet users in Brazil continues to increase, less than 50% of connected consumers made purchases online in 2016, according to information cited in the yStats.com report. As a result, only a small one-digit share of the country’s total retail sales is transacted online. Brazil’s B2C E-Commerce market thus still has much room for growth, with growth rates expected to remain in the double-digits at least until 2020.
Among the main growth drivers for online shopping in Brazil is the rise in smartphone penetration. The share of households with at least one smartphone increased five-fold between 2011 and 2016, according to statistics cited in this report by yStats.com. With nearly three-quarters of online shoppers making purchases via mobile devices, M-Commerce reached a double-digit share of B2C E-Commerce transactions in Brazil as of early 2017.
Another important characteristic of the Brazilian B2C E-Commerce market is online shoppers’ preference for installment payments and high usage rates of local payment method Boleto Bancario. One-third of online shoppers in Brazil admit that they would abandon an online purchase if they do not find their favorite payment method. Other frequent reasons for abandoning an online shopping cart, according to a 2017 survey cited in the yStats.com report, are high handling fees and delivery costs. A high double-digit percentage of shoppers say they would buy online more if free shipping was offered on all purchases.
The market leader of Brazilian B2C E-Commerce is B2W Digital, owner of several popular online shops including Americanas.com, Submarino.com.br, Shoptime.com.br, and Soubarato.com.br. In line with the overall market trend, B2W Digital is seeing an increasing share of its revenues stemming from the marketplace offering, which is growing significantly faster than the direct-to-consumer online retail sales. Online marketplace Mercado Livre claims the second place in Brazilian online retail by market share, also ranking first by number of website visits. Furthermore, China-based cross-border E-Commerce marketplace Alibaba has gained popularity among Brazilian online shoppers, ranking as the third most visited E-Commerce website as of early 2017.
