The Mexican economy is one of the most coveted ones in the region, not only for its size but also for its growth potential. Many eTailers are trying to win the battle for the digital shopper. Mercado Libre, the Argentinian digital giant, has the goal of defeating Amazon and Walmart and become a leader of the CPG industry. In this article, we analyze their progress in Mexico.

Mercado Libre launched at the beginning of last month a new service called Supermercado Libre, through which they expect to enable users to buy everything they need for their homes: from cleaning articles, to personal care, food, beverages and also pet food. All these categories are available under a specific section called Supermarket. Delivery is for free for purchases over USD30 and orders arrive between 24 and 48 hours after they are done.

This service was tested during the second semester of 2018 and sales tripled. David Diaz, FMCG categories responsible at Mercado Libre, explained in an interview that the company expects “to be able to reach to more than a third of all Mexican users with internet access only through their data base of active users and for them to adapt to this new technology”. Regarding to the competitiveness of the Mexican market, that already has the presence of giants such as Walmart and Amazon, Diaz considered that Mercado Libre’s proposal is competitive enough for the mexican shoppers.

The launching of this section included a strong investment in order to digitalize all distributors and sellers involved in this process, such as Sahuayo, Scorpion and La Castellana. Mercado Libre also looked for new sellers to complement the national supply and to start operating directly with companies that could delivery their products into their distribution centers.

Mercado Libre, the Argentinian giant, keeps expanding its horizons to all Latin America, making the competition for online shoppers even more interesting.