As E-Commerce Expands, Client Complaints Increase

A study from London-based financial services firm Barclays expects that e-commerce will double its Mexican market penetration within three years, from 6 percent of total retail sales up to 15 percent in 2023. As the market share for e-retailers grows, complaints they need to deal with do as well.

The pandemic has spurred on e-commerce´s development, which was already benefiting from an upwards trend, experts say: “This 2020, e-commerce growth has been accelerating for the past three years. Before the pandemic, our expectation was that it would contribute with 7 percent of total retail sales in 2024, today we are already at 6.3 percent,” Luis Gradilla, Consumer Intelligence Market Leader at Nielsen Mexico told El Financiero.

Looking at the market penetration, the biggest player in Mexico is Mercado Libre, with a 49 percent share. Amazon follows with a 22 percent. Walmart ranks third with 12 percent, followed by Coppel with 10 percent and Liverpool with 7 percent. In 2020, 50.7 percent of Mexican citizens have bought online, and this figure could go up to 78 percent by 2025, reports El Financieros.

When a business grows and opportunities expand, so do customer service issues.  By consulting the Federal Consumer Protection Agency (PROFECO), El Financiero found out that 67.8 percent of 1,514 consumer complaints regarding e-commerce were issued against Mercado Libre, Amazon and Rappi. Mercado Libre received 662 complaints in 2020, representing 43.7 percent of the total. Amazon registered 192, followed by Rappi with 173. Sellers on the platforms refusing to send the product were the biggest reason for consumer complaints, with 32.4 percent. Deposits of refunds came in second, with 23.1 percent. Problems with exchanges or returns corresponded made up 19.1 percent of the cases.

In order to stay on top of the growing market share, players therefore need to make sure they provide excellent customer service and satisfaction if they are to retain clients. Eduardo Medeiros, Chief Digital Officer – LATAM at Office Depot agrees: “The side effect that many still do not see from this exponential growth is the loss of customers in the medium to long term, because as new customers are gained much faster, we lose a customer in the digital world based on the experience of buying and after sales,” he warned in his Expert Opinion for MBN.