Amazon logistics center in Graben, Germany. Amazon Inc. began selling its Kindle ebook reader in Brazil on Friday, entering on tiptoe in the retail business more challenging but more e-commerce market in Latin America. Photo: Michaela Rehle / Reuters Inc. Amazon began selling its Kindle ebook reader in Brazil on Friday, entering on tiptoe in the retail business more challenging but more e-commerce market in Latin America.
ereaders to send across this country of continental dimensions, Amazon will experience firsthand the logistical problems of Brazil, seen as an obstacle to an extensive retail operation as it has in the United States.
planet’s biggest online store launched an Internet bookstore in Brazil in December 2012, a less risky way to land in the emerging e-commerce market of 11,000 million dollars annually. So far, the Kindle was only sold in bookstores, appliance stores and kiosks in malls.
“From north to south, from east to west, now we will be delivering products in Brazil,” said Alex Szapiro, a former Apple executive hired to command the landing of Amazon in Brazil.
“We learn from everything I do,” he said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday. “We learn about digital books, learn about Brazilian consumers and from tomorrow we will learn how to move products from point A to point B”.
Asked if selling Kindle was a rehearsal for a larger retail operation, Szapiro said the two were not connected.
“do not talk about future plans,” he said repeatedly during the interview.
a thriving middle class and a still low Internet penetration, Brazil became a new and promising frontier for Internet giants like Facebook, Twitter and Amazon.
market research firm estimated EBIT Brazilians spent 28,000 million reais ($ 11.700 billion) online in 2013, or 25 percent more than the previous year.
But the largest economy in Latin America is also known for its high taxes, stifling labor costs and logistical bottlenecks that become e-commerce a challenging scenario for newcomers.
Unlike in the U.S., where Amazon operates its own distribution network from giant warehouses, Szapiro Brazilian delegate said shipments of the Kindle to outside firms, who declined to identify.
“Logistics in Brazil on one side can be a challenge, but from the point of view of electronic commerce Brazil is a very advanced country,” said the executive. “Some companies really prepared for that.”
Paperwhite Kindle will be sold through local Amazon site to 479 reais, or almost double the price in the United States.
Amazon has been under pressure to try to maintain its growth by investing heavily in its retail and distribution networks around the world, and expand into the world of technology with the Kindle, services and cloud computing online media products.
The company does not disclose figures on its operation in Brazil. But total international sales increased 14 percent to 29,900 million in 2013.
Szapiro said Amazon will initially offer free delivery of the Kindle and will allow consumers to pay in 12 installments without surcharge, a common practice in the Brazilian consumer market shows how far the company is willing to go.
“That’s new for Amazon,” he said, “but it is mandatory in Brazil.”
“What all this will be able to use in the future I do not know?” he added, “because we’re launching tomorrow is a different operation: an operation of physical sale”
.
(1 dollar = 2.38 reais)
(Reporting by Esteban Israel and Marcela Ayres, edited by Vicki Allen)
No comments:
Post a Comment