Retail in Latin America closes the year at a trillion dollars

The value of retail sales in Latin America will exceed US$ 1 trillion by 2022. By way of comparison, in 2017 the figure was US$920 billion. The estimate comes from the German data company Statista. Considering e-commerce sales alone, this year’s sales are expected to exceed US$ 150 billion and reach more than US$ 250 billion by 2025, with the electronics, fashion and food segments standing out. The data is striking. They show that the continent is following the global trend of digital sales and is maturing in the retail sector. The German company defines Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Colombia as the main food retail markets in Latin America. It also lists the main players in this segment in the region. Based on data from the turn of the decade, the survey indicates that the largest chains in the region were, in order, Walmart (Mexico and Central America), Carrefour (Brazil), Grupo Pão de Açúcar (Brazil), Oxxo (Mexico), Ceconsud (Chile), Organización Soriana (Mexico), Grupo Comercial Chedraui (Mexico) and Almacenes Éxito (Colombia). Considered the first supermarket without physical stores in Mexico, the Jüsto chain is the first company based in Latin America with a focus on delivery plus funding. The data is for 2022 and also shows that the other most financed companies are the Brazilian Shopper, the Colombian Merqueo, the Brazilian Hortifruti, the Chilean Cornershop and the Colombian Mercadoni. Completing the overall picture, the study also ranks the main product brands in the region, using the Consumer Reach Points criterion. At the start of the decade, Bimbo was the top brand, followed by Maggi, Knorr, La Moderna, Hellmann’s, Soya, Sadia, Cheetos, Quaker and Mc Cormick. In the big picture, Statista’s data indicates that e-commerce was already a booming sales format on the continent, even before the pandemic, which began in the first quarter of 2020. The data shows that, for general retail, that generated by e-commerce retailers in Latin America grew by almost 204% in 2019 compared to 2018.