- May 30, 2022
- Posted by: medium
- Category: National
Ecuador will be the ninth country to have free market offices, the platform that was born in 1999 in Argentina and is currently present in 18 countries, but only in 8 offices: Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The announcement of the arrival of the platform with own offices to the country was made by itsFounder and Director, Marcos Galperin, after meeting withThe President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, last April.
Galperin revealed in a publication on the social network Twitter that in June his company will open offices in Ecuador and will launch two of its main services in the country: Payment market and Shipping market. However, the process will be in phases, with the aim of having a robust commercial team by the end of the year.
This was detailed to El Universo Diario Philippe Fossaert; headmarketplace Free Market Ecuador.
The manager explained that Mercado Libre currently operates in Ecuador under a classified model, that is, that anyone can sell or buy a product by agreeing on the payment and delivery between buyer and seller.
“Today Mercado Libre does not intervene anywhere in the process, except in the arrangement of the platform. With the opening of the offices we want to develop a realmarketplace,Where the buyer can pay through Mercado Pago, without leaving our platform, giving security to both the buyer and the seller, ”said Fossaert.
On the other hand, it is planned to implement the logistics service, changes that Fossaert expects to start applying during this year.
He stressed that the decision to land in Ecuador with its own services is due to the important signals that the country has given to promote foreign investment, which include regulatory changes by state entities, such as the Internal Revenue Service (SRI) and the Central Bank, which allow an online market to operate.
This in a context in which Mercado Libre in Ecuador has 30,000 active vendors, what for the manager is equivalent to enormous potential, while highlighting that Ecuador stands out for being the country in Latin America with the largest number of entrepreneurs per 1,000 inhabitants.
In 2021, for example, in Mercado Libre EcuadorAbout 3 million products were transactedIn different categories, among the most popular:computing and cell phones, followed by video game consoles and beauty products.
While, on the opening process, the manager revealed that he will have several phases. Initially there will be a small local team with support from neighboring countries, such as Chile and Colombia. The idea, he explained, is to start towards the end of the year to form a robust commercial team and as the logistics operation expands.
“We visualize several local hiring in the main cities. Mercado Libre projects to close this year with44,000 employeesthroughout the continent. We believe that Ecuador can follow this growth trend as the results are giving, ”said the main spokesman of the platform in Ecuador.
New and more services for Ecuador
Regarding the services that Galperin advanced in April that it would bring Mercado Libre to Ecuador, Fossaert said that Mercado Pago leads the technological transformation of finance in Latin America and is present in seven countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay).
He stressed that the objective of the platform with this service is to democratize finance, generating inclusion of people who are not bankrupt and, on the other hand, contribute to generate competition in payment systems.
“Mercado Pago arises at the beginning to process the payments of the free market. This is the initial scope for Ecuador; however, in the future, we visualize launch other products present in other countries, such as the authorization of payments to bus digital wallet in people's phones, from where they can pay in physical stores with QR code, recharge the cell phone, even take a loan from theirsmartphone.
Meanwhile, Mercado shipping has to do with logistics services, a fundamental issue for the development of the e-commerce Because of its direct impact on the experience of purchase and sale, said Fossaert, who stressed that, in that framework, market ships have two objectives: simplify the task of sellers when preparing and delivering the products, and ensuring the best experience of buyers making increasingly fast shipments, at a convenient price, with the possibility of permanent monitoring and with a precise promise of delivery.
He added that they will start working with several carriers National reach to collect it, collect in service offices the packages of the sellers and deliver them in the shortest possible time to any place in the country.
“We hope to consolidate ourselves as the main sales channel of large brands, but also from SMEs and MSMEs throughout the country, which see us as the way to consolidate their business and grow their sales. We want to generate the necessary trust to become e-commerce more used by Ecuadorians ”, projected the head marketplace Free Market Ecuador.