Brazilian e-commerce generated revenues of R$ 35,8 bn (US$ 13,3 bn) in 2014 with an annual growth rate of 24%, according to e-bits’ recently launched e-commerce study. Brazil has a total of 61,6 million people who have already purchased online, out of which 51,5 million unique online buyers placed a total of 103,4 million e-orders in 2014.
Apparel and accessories continue being the most sold product category, followed by cosmetics/perfumes/personal care/health, appliances, telephony/mobile phones, books and magazines, IT, home and decoration, in this order.
Mobile still doesn’t have the importance of other international markets, but mobile orders grew significantly from 4,8% in January 2014 to 9,7% in January 2015. In December 2014, 65% of all mobile orders originated from mobile phones and 35% from tablets. It is also important to outline that the average income of a mobile buyer is R$ 6128 (US$ 2270) while it is R$ 4378 (US$ 1620) for non-mobile buyers.
The study done by e-bit also emphasizes the increasing importance of international websites providing products and services for the Brazilian market. Out of 10 Brazilian online shoppers, 4 purchased on international websites. The main motivation for cross border purchases are lower prices, lack of availability on national websites or the product not yet launched in the Brazilian market. The total cross border purchase volume was R$ 6,6 billion (US$ 2,4 bn) in 2014 according to e-bit.
Ralf Germer, the CEO of PagBrasil, comments: “Physical products shipped into Brazil have always played a predominant role in cross border e-commerce, but there are more and more digital goods and international service providers moving into Brazil with websites localized into Brazilian Portuguese. Payments from games already account for 9% of all cross border payments.” According to PagBrasil, credit cards account for 57% of payments on international websites, boleto bancário 23%, online banking transfer 15% and debit cards still less than 5%, but increasing in share. In total 34,8 million orders were placed on international websites and the average ticket was R$ 190,14 (about US$ 70).
