Image source: Amazon.com
Amazon.com Inc (Nasdaq: AMZN ) announced Wednesday it is rolling out free one-day delivery to Prime subscribers in 50 cities across Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy.
The offering, which is currently available to Prime members in certain markets across the US, Canada and UK, arrives two years after Amazon first introduced the service in Brazil.
Previously, Amazon only offered a scaled down version of its subscription service in Brazil, which included access to free two-day shipping with an option to pay extra for one-day delivery.
Amazon’s move comes as its more established local e-commerce rivals invest heavily in ramping up delivery speeds and attracting loyal customers, Reuters noted.
With an estimated 105 million online shoppers in Brazil, the market competition among e-retailers has grown fierce, especially after the pandemic-related boom in digital shopping. Same-day shipping has been a challenge for some companies, however, especially due to the patchy infrastructure in the vast country.
In November 2020, Amazon broadened its footprint in Brazil by opening three more logistics centers. Now, it has eight facilities across Brazil, where Amazon said it has seen the fastest growth in Prime customers.
Since its 2012 launch in Brazil, Amazon has struggled against established local competitors, like Magazine Luiza and MercadoLibre Inc, that have extensive delivery networks, strong brands and a solid understanding of Brazilian shoppers.
Almost a decade later, Seattle-based Amazon still has not taken control of the market. placing fourth in an Ebanx ranking of most visited e-commerce sites in Latin America in 2020, trailing behind MercadoLibre, Lojas Americanas and SoftBank-backed OLX Brazil.
On Wednesday, Mariana Roth, head of Amazon Prime in Brazil, told Reuters, “In the last year, we’ve developed better infrastructure, especially in the country’s capital cities with new distribution centers, and that is what helped make one-day delivery possible.”
Roth declined to specify how many new Prime subscribers it expects to attract with the new offering or how much revenue it forecasts it will generate.
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Source: Equities News
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