The Amazon platform is open to export from Ecuador

Ecuador is part of the 188 countries enabled to sell

Amazon is a giant electronic commerce portal that has gradually gained ground in Latin America. Ecuadorians have used it more to buy products and bring them abroad.

But the digital platform also has another commercial road: it serves as a channel for companies to sell abroad, that is, an opportunity to export.

For companies to use that platform, the American giant enables countries as eligible to sell products. The last country in the region that has entered that list has been Uruguay.

The Government of that nation described that decision of Amazon as a "milestone" that represents an opportunity for the development and international projection of its companies

Within the list of nations that can be sold through Amazon is Ecuador, which was considered before the authorization of Uruguay, explains an official -aware of the issue that was in the previous government.

In total, there is188 nationsThey have endorsement for their companies to sell on that electronic commerce platform.

Xavier Rosero, a university professor and a specialist in foreign trade, indicates that Amazon did not have open the possibility of products from Ecuador, so this enabling of the country can be related to the trade facilitation measures and the phase 1 agreement with the United States.

"A channel for SMEs that want to internationalize through eCommerce and platforms like Amazon opens," he says.

For Leonardo Ottati, director of the Ecuadorian Chamber of Electronic Commerce, the fact that Ecuador is enabled on that platform is "positive", but adds that you have to understand how the logistics issue will work. He says that uploading a product is easy, but taking it out of the country is something else.

There are currently products of Ecuadorian origin that are marketed on the Amazon portal. Consumers can findsnacks,preserves, noodles, straw hats toquilla and stick Santo.

These national products, however, have managed to enter the giant platform through distribution alliances that are operated in the countries where the product is sold.

Last year, Tortolines, a brand of chifles of the company Inaleccsa, arrived at Amazon through its distributor in the United States, Wise Foods Inc., a company that is also part of continental ark.

Amazon does not have its own logistics in Ecuador, so shipments are made through other channels that provide companies to remove the merchandise via air and maritime.

And that is a challenge that remains to be improved, because the logistics costs to export are not yet attractive especially for small businesses, an entrepreneur indicates.

A former official of the Ministry of Production indicates that the Amazon platform may be more useful and can be enhanced as a channel for export once the export promotion program is executed throughcourier.

This is something that was announced in the final stretch of the previous government and that the administration of Guillermo Lasso must implement. This plan includes the possibility of setting rates with discounts and advice so that entrepreneurs can use the courier To export.

Alfredo Velazco, of the Digital Users Group, hopes that there are no tax obstacles with this new possibility of marketing products, such as those imposed by the Internal Revenue Service (SRI) by charging VAT to the digital services acquired on digital platforms domiciled abroad.

He maintains that users who buy in foreign portals are paying VAT when buying products when the specific resolution that should be applied only for digital services.