Amazon Brings Prime Program to Brazil to Outflank Local Rivals

[Judi Lynn]

11m ago
Fabiola Moura, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. is bringing its Prime membership program to Brazil in an effort to leapfrog competitors and gain traction in a country where it has been expanding slowly but surely.

To start, Amazon Prime Brazil will be a scaled-down version of the U.S. subscription service, offering free unlimited shipping for about 500,000 products out of the 20 million Amazon currently sells in Latin America’s largest economy. Two day-shipping will be available in 90 cities, the company said. Deliveries in other urban centers will take three days or more.

Amazon, which entered Brazil in 2012, is battling established e-commerce competitors, including MercadoLibre Inc. which offers free shipping if shoppers spend a certain amount. B2W Cia. Digital, another local rival, offers its own “prime” delivery service with unlimited free shipping, among other perks. Amazon operates two distribution centers in Cajamar, near Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city.

“This is a country in which we’re investing for the long run,” Amazon’s Prime and Marketing Vice President Jamil Ghani said in an interview. “Prime is the crown jewel of the consumer business at Amazon.”

More:
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/amazon-brings-prime-program-to-brazil-to-outflank-local-rivals-1.1313547