Chilean retailer Falabella has bought the online marketplace and successful ecommerce player Linio with the specific purpose of taking on Amazon, Walmart and the dominant player in the region MercadoLibre and becoming a credible online retailer in its own right. The price of the purchase was $137 million USD.
Based in the Chilean capital of Santiago, Falabella is known for its department stores, supermarkets, home improvement brands, shopping malls and also the financial services it already operates in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay. It already has a formidable fulfilment network available. Linio will expand Falabella’s reach, specifically online, so it will now also be able to serve Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama.
And it is the useful network of coming online with Falabella’s bricks and mortar infrastructure that has excited pundits most of all: it offers genuine synergies and opportunities to develop an omnichannel operation. This acquisition immediately means Falabella is in the top 5 ecommerce players in the region.
Find out more about Linio
Earlier in the year, we examined Linio as part of our Marketplaces 2018 series and you can read more about the practicalities of selling into Latin and South America. Hopefully this acquisition and expansion will make it even easier and more successful an outlet for merchants. Read all about Linio here.
Online retail is booming in Latin America and the Linio marketplace can expose your products to 140 million internet users and this figure is expected to double as more users come online and it is estimated that online sales in Latin America will double to $118 billion USD by 2021. Operating in the country has some unique challenges, such as many consumers not having access to a bank account, but it can still help you sell to these customers. Chris sat down to talk about the Linio opportunity last year and here’s the video:
