Page 18 - PET worldwide issue 04/2021

Distribution

Online market

in Latin America

If online sales were already a growing trend over the last
decade, 2020 saw a boost in the popularity of e-commerce.

The pet food market was not left behind.

According to Packaged Facts, Chewy are big in the US market, and 58 per cent respectively. It
the international marketing and but the Latin American market reported that during the first six
communications agency Zoo has another strong contender: months of that year, it noticed an
Inc., which covers the agricul- Mercado Libre. increase in the consumption of
tural, livestock and pet food in- pet food on the website. It also
dustry, reports that online pet Consumer preferences noted that there are differences
product sales in Latin Amer- Mercado Libre is an Argentin- among the countries on the pre-
ica make up 30 per cent of the ian e-commerce company with ferred pack weight. For exam-
market. This indicates consider- a presence in Argentina, Brazil, ple, on average, Uruguay users
able growth compared to the 8 Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Pan- usually purchase pet food bags
per cent it held in 2015. Purely ama, Peru, Uruguay and other in excess of 8 kg, while Chilean
South American countries. With consumers tend to buy 1 or 2 kg
378 million registered users bags.
in 2020, Mercado Libre is the An improvement on the fulfil-
most popular e-commerce web- ment system implemented by
site in the region. The platform the platform means that users
supports both C2C (customer feel safe and comfortable mak-
to customer) and B2C (busi- ing purchases on the website or
ness to customer) interactions, the app. This shows that Latin
allowing users to list new and America is a profitable market
second-hand products as well to invest in.
as enabling small and medium-
sized businesses to open a shop The example of Campi
on the website. Brands such as Campi is a company that de-
Australian Moss, Hills, Instinct, cided to incorporate a feed divi-
Mutt and Pedigree have official sion to optimise its production
The pet food market never sleeps, but dogs don’t know that. shops on Mercado Libre. costs and improve its market
Back in 2019, Mercado Libre share. The company is currently
online retailers already had a conducted an analysis of user present in 17 Mexican states and
strong presence, but since the behaviour in Argentina, Brazil, has plans to expand into the Car-
onset of the coronavirus pan- Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uru- ibbean and Central America.
demic, traditional stores have guay. It found that 45 per cent of Campi specialises in the pro-
found the need to build reliable the demand for pet food came duction of pet food and has de-
e-commerce platforms. Retailers from millennials, especially in veloped its own line of food for
such as Amazon, Walmart and Mexico and Colombia, with 52 dogs and cats. It does not have a

18 PET worldwide 4|2021

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