Young Latin Americans Embrace the Internet - And Start Shopping Gavin O'Toole - The Guardian
go to original November 13, 2013

On Monday, China’s biggest online shopping company processed more than $5.75 billion in its online payments system — a record for a single day anywhere in the world, surpassing by two and a half times the total for American retailers last year on so-called Cyber Monday. (Qilai Shen/The New York Times)

Young populations enthusiastically embracing mobile technology are giving Latin America the potential to become a digital El Dorado as online retailing begins to take off. Recent figures suggest that online retail sales growth is outstripping more developed regions as a majority of Latin Americans have become web-enabled. The region illustrates how demographics, growing mobile use and rising standards of living are now helping emerging economies catch up with more mature online markets.

Internet retailing is becoming a highly competitive arena which, according to Euromonitor, accounted for global sales worth $580bn in 2012. But online spend varies greatly between regions due to varying levels of internet and mobile phone penetration, cyber security, and broadband and mobile infrastructure.

An analysis of online retailing in more than 100 countries (PDF) by the commercial property services groups Cushman & Wakefield suggests that although developed regions have hitherto enjoyed an advantage, rapid advances are allowing emerging markets to soar ahead.

Note: All the main Latin American markets except Mexico now enjoy 100% mobile penetration.

Read the rest at The Guardian

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