The of Brazilian governement appears keen to privatise Correios (Empresa Brasileira de Correios e Telégrafos), the national postal service of Brazil and Amazon and Alibaba have both been rumoured as interested potential buyers.
In 2017, Brazil made up 38% of the entire Latin-American eCommerce market and hit 27.6bn in 2018. By 2022 the market is predicted to be worth over $38 billion according to WorldPay. As with much of the world, consumers in Brazil tend to purchase on marketplaces as they like the ability to buy just about everything on the same site.
Brazil’s postal service Correios was founded on the 25th of January 1663 and today serves the entire Brazilian population with a vast network of service channels and a large logistical capacity that covers all regions of the country. That makes it an attractive proposition for marketplaces wishing to expand in the emerging Brazilian territory as would give them control of the delivery part of the ecommerce proposition.
It’s likely that if either Amazon or Alibaba went ahead with a purchase, which is by no means certain, that they would partner with a major national bank. The bank would handle the financial side of operations with the marktplace running the logistics.
Both Amazon with Amazon Logistics and Alibaba with Cainiao Smart Logistics Network have experience of running massive distribution networks focused on final mile deliveries. What neither company yet has is experience of blending parcel deliveries for ecommerce with letter deliveries to businesses and consumers, let alone all the other services run by the Post Office, which would make this an interesting acquisition if either marketplace decides to proceed.
