Digital Buys in Mexico to Grow in 2014: Business-to-Consumer Ecommerce Sales Increasing Fast vs. Latin America

By Michael Oleaga First Posted: Apr 21, 2014 08:48 PM EDT

Mexico is set to be among the fastest-growing markets in Latin America's business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce sales.

According to estimates by eMarketer, the B2C ecommerce sales in Mexico will increase by 20 percentage points this year, which will equate to approximately $11.43 billion in 2014. Digital sales in Mexico are also expected to expand at a 17.6 percent compound annual growth rate by 2017, which may bring the total up further to $15.11 billion by the end of eMarketer's forecast period.

A reason for the ecommerce growth in Mexico this year is due to the Internet user base in the country, namely 21.3 percent or 10.4 million people with web access. In comparison to 2013's figures, the Internet base user in Mexico is an increase of 16.5 percentage points.

"While there is plenty of room for growth in the country as a whole, digital purchasing is restricted by Internet adoption more than anything else," noted eMarketer. "So it comes as no surprise that growth in the number of digital buyers moves hand in hand with Internet uptake."

The Competitive Intelligence Unit (CIU) reported 71 percent of Mexican Internet users have already made at least one digital purchase based on data released in March this year, however, "it is important to note that the projection includes almost any kind of monetary digital transaction-including ringtones and other micropurchases-and is not constricted to a specific timeframe."

Although Internet users will contribute to the rise of digital buying, 2017 has been projected to see a drop of Internet users in Mexico by 6.3 percent. Despite the estimated drop, Mexico could see up to 78.2 million Internet users by 2017.

The main method of digital transactions has occurred via computers rather than mobile devices. Based on the CIU's data, 84 percent of Internet users in Mexico used a computer to complete a digital purchase while mobile phones ranked second with 22 percent. Tablets were considered as the third popular method for digital purchases with 7 percent while utilizing a video game console garnered 1 percentage point.

Computers are considered popular due to "distrust" and "lack of experience" with mobile devices among Mexicans according to the report. The CIU added, however, "It is common that consumers who start the path to purchase on a smartphone or tablet finish their transaction on their computer."

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