Digital Invoicing
Mexico, Brazil and Argentina have teamed up to launch a pilot program that strengthens cooperation between the countries in exchanging digital invoices. The nations are already situated in one of the world’s highest-ranked continents when it comes to digital billing.
Customer Experience
Online commerce is growing slowly but steadily in Mexico, thanks in large part to the ways in which digital merchants are reaching the unbanked population of the country. As a recent Wall Street Journal article explains, although eCommerce presently only makes up about 2 percent of Mexico’s approximately $203 billion in annual retail sales, that’s four times what the percentage was five years ago, and consulting firm Euromonitor International predicts that it will double again by 2020.
The obstacle for online retailers, the WSJ story goes on to share, is that only 22.6 million credit cards are in use among a population of 119.5 million, which obviously limits the ability for many consumers in the region to pay for goods via the Internet. The solution has been to expand those consumers’ payment options.
Product information for clothing can be incomplete online, and returns are not always simple, so customers prefer to finish their purchase o line to reduce the risk of buying clothes that do not meet their expecta- tions. For less customized products such as television sets and mobile phones, Mexicans feel more confident making purchases online, a pattern that is reflected in the higher percentages of sales completed online for these items.
Local Entities
Installments (for cards) are also popular, and a domestic entity is required to support this type of payment.
Conekta, established in Mexico in 2012, enables advanced features less commonly found in Latin America, including recurring payments, card-on-file and anti-fraud tools that negate the need for authorization via 3D Secure.
Mobiles Payments
In 2015, it is expected that Mexico will record a 40% increase in mobile commerce. After Brazil, Mexico is the second largest ecommerce market in Latin America. It has substantially grown during the last few years and the trends show that it will continue to do so in the future.
Only 17 percent of mobile phone users were shopping on their smartphones as of 2012, a percentage that will certainly increase in coming years. Higher-income consumers in Mexico’s three largest cities—Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey—accounted for more than half of all online sales in 2013, so as the rest of the country catches up there will be an opportunity for online retailers. Mexico’s proximity to the United States makes it a prime location for cross-border ecommerce.