Why is e-commerce not taking off in Argentina?

There are 13 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 7,114 times. The latest Post (July 13, 2018 at 8:30 AM) was by Splinter.

1st Official Post
    • Official Post

    I am on my last day in Italy and I have been buying stuff on Amazon throughout my holiday. While Amazon it relatively new also in Italy, e-commerce was already a thing before Amazon.it and many big chain stores were already offering the ability to purchase online, pay for the delivery and get your purchase to your door. It was not as economically advantageous as buying in store, but still...

    In Argentina this is hardly the case. With the exception of Mercadolibre, I cannot think of a similar e-commerce online place in Argentina. Big electronics chain stores such as Fravega, Musimundo, and Ribeiro, offer online e-stores but the selection is not as wide as in-store.


    Why?

    Quote from serafina

    I am on my last day in Italy and I have been buying stuff on Amazon throughout my holiday. While Amazon it relatively new also in Italy, e-commerce was already a thing before Amazon.it and many big chain stores were already offering the ability to purchase online, pay for the delivery and get your purchase to your door. It was not as economically advantageous as buying in store, but still...

    In Argentina this is hardly the case. With the exception of Mercadolibre, I cannot think of a similar e-commerce online place in Argentina. Big electronics chain stores such as Fravega, Musimundo, and Ribeiro, offer online e-stores but the selection is not as wide as in-store.


    Why?

    I’m really just guessing because I’ve never done e-commerce in Argentina, but if much of the delivery is by postal service, as it is in the US, rather than private couriers, what are the odds that a large part of the merchandise never gets to the buyer?

    • Official Post

    My husband has sold several items on mercadolibre and he insists on using the courier OCA after a shipping with Correo argentino resulted in a projector lamp being stolen by the projector itself.
    Shipping just the lamp by itself was done by OCA. what’s the point in stealing just a bulb?!

    If you’re at it, go for the whole thing, no?!

    OCA shops are not close by to where we live now and when selling through ML we have to go to an actual OCA office, instead of simply dropping the package off at any partner location (usually a kiosko or a shipping company).


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    I think Ed is right. Private carriers are usually more expensive than postal delivery, and not significantly adding to the cost of the item would be a factor. But until the postal service decides to police itself and become a reliable, honest service, neither individuals nor businesses will trust it for e-commerce.

    That is pathetic, isn’t it.

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    Whenever I sell on Mercadolibre I get the buyer to pay the shipping which is then added to what he pays me by card and deducted later by ML for the OCA shipping. It's fair, it works well and I simply print the shipping note, stick it on the box and deliver it to a shop around the corner who is an agent for OCA. It doesn't have to be an actual OCA branch, so try this link to find the nearest.

    http://www.enviosoca.com/ImpositionCenter/Index/default.aspx

    My point was that, when buying in the US from Amazon, they’ll often use the postal service to ship. Am I wrong in thinking that that would not be a good option in Argentina and that it would inhibit the adoption of ecommerce by the public in general?

    • Official Post
    Quote from EJLarson

    My point was that, when buying in the US from Amazon, they’ll often use the postal service to ship. Am I wrong in thinking that that would not be a good option in Argentina and that it would inhibit the adoption of ecommerce by the public in general?

    I would say that Serafina's case isn't the norm, it's just that Mercadolibre have an arrangement with OCA which is a private freight company (and practically bankrupt) and the system works.

    As for e-commerce here in general, Mercadolibre have it more or less sewn up, so why buy online elsewhere?

    I've never tried to be honest.

    I used my wife's Mercado Libre account last week to buy two tobacco smoking pipes....one on the 4th and one on the 5th. Postage was 160 pesos for each package using Correo....the pipes weigh around 30gr each.

    The one dispatched on the 4th has arrived at my local Correo 7 days later and the second is still sitting in a sorting office in Buenos Aires. I suspect the staff downed tools on Friday and didn't return until yesterday....union power and all that.

    I'm impressed with the way Mercado Libre operate :thumbup: it's Correo who are the problem. :thumbdown:

    I buy pipe tobacco twist - a kilo at a time from Sayri a company based in Cordoba. They send it to me using Buspack and it arrives within two days. Excellent service from ordering to collecting. That's the way it should be done. The guy I always deal with is French right enough.

    Quote from UK Man

    I used my wife's Mercado Libre account last week to buy two tobacco smoking pipes....one on the 4th and one on the 5th. Postage was 160 pesos for each package using Correo....the pipes weigh around 30gr each.

    The one dispatched on the 4th has arrived at my local Correo 7 days later and the second is still sitting in a sorting office in Buenos Aires. I suspect the staff downed tools on Friday and didn't return until yesterday....union power and all that.


    I'm impressed with the way Mercado Libre operate :thumbup: it's Correo who are the problem. :thumbdown:

    Well according to Mercado Libre my purchase was to arrive no later than today 7 days after the purchased item was handed over to Correo. Track and trace shows it's only covered half the distance so far. Bit of a shambles.