Amazon eyes new warehouse in Brazil e-commerce push

SAO PAULO: Amazon.com Inc is looking to lease a 50,000-square-meter warehouse just outside Sao Paulo, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, as it steps up its push into Latin America´s biggest retail market, Brazil.

The logistics investment, which would be four times the size of its current book-shipping operation in the country, is a sign the online retailer may soon handle distribution of electronics and other goods sold on its Brazilian website.

That would be the first step of its kind for Amazon in Latin America´s largest economy, where it currently relies on third parties to ship their own goods sold on its marketplace, and it underscores the seriousness of the e-commerce giant´s renewed push into Brazil.

Amazon declined to comment on the possible warehouse lease. While an estimated two-thirds of Brazil´s 209 million people have internet access, online retail was slow to take off at first, amid concerns over security and complications with tax and logistics in the continent-sized country.

E-commerce accounts for around 5 percent of Brazil´s roughly $300 billion retail market about half its share in the United States but it has doubled in the past four years and is forecast to keep growing annually at a double-digit pace.