Amazon has announced that it will open its second Brazilian fulfillment center in the first half of 2020, in the northeastern state of Pernambuco. As Amazon continues to innovate, the retailer enhanced its shopping experience throughout 2019, launching new categories to start the year to build an offering that includes everything from electronics to shelf-stable consumables. The move comes as Amazon aspires to offer two-day delivery to defined geographic areas in 2020.
The Brazilian retail market has a shifting competitive landscape, with Walmart removing itself from the market via a majority sale of its local operations to private equity firm Advent International. Meanwhile, competition is intensifying in the ecommerce space, with LATAM specialist MercadoLibre pushing investment with the opening of another FC this year.
Despite infrastructure and economic hurdles, Brazil represents a major opportunity to brands as ecommerce capabilities enhance and population density remains high, with nearly 90% of the population living in the urban strip that stretches along the Atlantic coast. Local brand teams should focus on ramping their Amazon relationship management, resourcing and headcount proportionally with Amazon’s growth, ensuring inventory availability and category leadership on the platform as it develops.
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