Shopee launches online store in Brazil

Southeast Asian ecommerce giant Shopee has opened its platform in Brazil, marking its first foray outside of Asia.

Other existing markets for Shopee include Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and its home country of Singapore.

Photo credit: Shopee

Shopee’s operations in the South American country appear to be minor as of the moment, as it does not have significant operations there and the merchants on its Brazil site appear to be the same as those on its Asian platforms.

“This is an initiative launched by our cross-border teams as a side project to cater to the demands of their cross-border merchants,” said Shopee in an emailed statement.

Brazil is a large and rapidly growing market for online shopping. According to a recent eEbit Webshoppers report, ecommerce in Brazil grew by 12% in the previous year compared to 2017. The industry is also expected to generate about US$16.8 billion this year, with 137 million projected online purchases.

It’s unclear if the company plans to formally launch in the country, but if it does, Shopee will be going up against already established local ecommerce companies such as Mercado Livre, a marketplace from Argentinian firm Mercado Libre; Americanas, the online portal of retail chain Lojas Americanas; and Amazon Brazil.

According to a report by Disfold, Mercado Libre currently dominates the ecommerce space in the country with roughly 331 million monthly visits. It is followed by Americanas with about 119.5 million visits and Amazon Brazil with around 51.5 million visits.

Shopee’s sister company, Garena, sees South America as a major market. Its self-developed mobile game, Free Fire, is one of the most popular titles in that region.

According to app analytics tool App Annie, it was the top-ranking game by monthly active users and consumer spending in Latin Amercia in Q2 2019.