Amazon, Shopee expand logistics investments in Brazil

Amidst a heated and competitive e-commerce market, major companies in the segment continue to invest in expanding their logistics capabilities, storage and delivery structures in Brazil.

Singapore-based Shopee, which has seen strong growth since its launch in Brazil in 2019, announced the opening of six new logistics hubs in cities in Minas Gerais and Bahia states, InfoMoney reported.

With the new sites, the company says it has expanded its operations to more than 100 logistics units in the country. Shopee did not disclose the investment in the sites.

The hubs serve as last-mile delivery points to the end-consumer. 

In addition to the hubs, Shopee reports 11 main distribution centers for its Brazilian operations, located in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Pernambuco, Goiás and Rio Grande do Sul. 

According to a report by Conversion, Shopee in June surpassed Amazon in number of accesses to become the second largest e-commerce firm in Brazil after MercadoLibre – which has also been expanding its logistics capacity rapidly. 

AMAZON 

Amazon is also doubling down on logistics, having announced two new initiatives in the country late last month. 

One of them was an expanded partnership with Azul airlines for new routes for its deliveries.

“This initiative is part of Amazon's mission to constantly improve the Brazilian customer experience, through local investments and business opportunities with national companies,” it said in a statement. 

With the new routes, shipping times to the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará, Amazonas, Rio Grande do Sul, Bahia and Maranhão fell from seven to two business days, according to the company.

Amazon said it has delivered more than 12mn products to various regions in Brazil with Azul. 

It also claims to be able to make deliveries to all 5,570 Brazilian municipalities. In more than 1,300 of them, deliveries can take up to two business days and in over 200 no more than one business day, the company said in the release.

Like Shopee, Amazon reports more than 100 logistics hubs throughout Brazil in partnership with transportation companies.

In addition to the partnership with Azul, the company launched a logistics program called Amazon Hub to expand its deliveries via SMEs in hard-to-reach localities.

Micro and small businesses are registered and trained to deliver Amazon packages to these locations, “generating additional income for their businesses in an autonomous and flexible manner, without the need for additional investments,” according to a separate company release.

Amazon reports more than 18,000 direct and indirect employees and more than 78,000 partner sellers in Brazil.

Since 2011, when it arrived in Brazil, Amazon says it has invested more than 33bn reais (US$5.87bn) in infrastructure and workforce in the areas of logistics, entertainment and cloud services (AWS), among others.

Also, according to the company, its operations have contributed more than 25bn reais to the country's GDP.