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Mercado Livre is going against its competitors and, despite the negative economic scenario in Brazil, the company announced that it will make billionaire investments in the country aimed at the logistics sector and Mercado Pago
The Free Market, one of the largest e-commerce platforms in Latin America, announced that it plans to expand its investments in Brazil by 70% this year alone. This increase is equivalent to R$ 17 billion, and represents a strategy to strengthen and grow the company's business in the country, according to what was informed last Tuesday (22) in a statement released by the company. A large part of these investments will be destined to Mercado Pago, a fintech of the group that provides payment services, transfers and mobile recharges. This segment already accounts for more than a third of Mercado Livre's revenues in the country.
Mercado Livre will build 4 distribution centers in São Paulo
The company must also apply a good part of the new investments in the expansion of its capacity logistics. As a result, 4 new Distribution Centers will be developed in the state of São Paulo, expanding the company's product distribution capacity throughout Brazil.
Mercado Livre is bucking the trend of its competitors, who view the economic situation in Brazil and Latin America with a certain distrust. The e-commerce giant is expanding its operations in the country, focusing more and more on financial services.
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In the last year, its investments in the Brazilian branch were the equivalent of the same amount spent in the previous four years. Last month, the company also announced large investments in Mexico, exceeding 1,4 billion dollars. This amount will also be used to expand logistics capacity, considering that the country was responsible for the highest net profit in the Free Market in the region in the fourth quarter.
New investments and new jobs
The expansion of investments has a direct impact on the generation of new jobs. In the last year alone, Mercado Livre carried out more than 16 hires across the continent, of which 7 were in Brazil.
The expectation is that this year will follow the same path. In February, the company announced the opening of more than 750 job openings, mainly focused on technology and innovation.
Mercado Livre was founded in Argentina in 1999, starting to operate in Brazil in the same year. The group grew in later decades and diversified its business, despite e-commerce being its greatest strength. Mercado Pago, for example, was created 18 years ago, in 2003, to be used for payments within the platform, and currently provides financial services outside the platform and even a card machine.
Free Market is preferred by consumers and investors in Brazil
After the e-commerce season, industry analysts focused on consumption trends in Brazil and which companies are managing to gain prominence. O Bradesco BBI and Credit Suisse pointed out in analyzes with different optics that one public company is attracting more attention than the others. That company is Mercado Livre, which scored well on a number of metrics, with research suggesting it is one of the top e-commerce platforms in the country.
According to analysts, the company has the largest buyer base, the lowest customer overlap with Shopee, the second highest Net Promoter Score (NPS), a metric that measures the satisfaction of its customers, second only to Amazon , and several other highlights.
