In the e-commerce platform war in Brazilian retail, the word of the moment is speed. In a dispute involving a market of R$ 235.5 billion and 438 million orders per year, according to the Brazilian Association of Artificial Intelligence and E-commerce (Abiacom), companies have understood that, to gain ground, they need to be increasingly faster.
Following this logic, the main players operating in the country – Amazon and Mercado Livre – including the Asian platforms Shopee, Temu, Aliexpress, and Shein , have demonstrated in their latest financial reports that competitive conditions have been a recurring theme. This means that, in practice, competition driven by logistics has ceased to be merely a strategic choice.
In a report, BTG Pactual highlighted the strategic plan of some online sales companies to increase revenue through investments to improve their delivery network.
“Logistics has become a basic requirement, squeezing the space for models with slower delivery and raising the standard of consistency in service levels across the country,” wrote analysts Luiz Guanais and Yan Cesquim in the report.
"Competitive conditions in Brazil are converging towards a three-pronged model: lower free shipping thresholds to gain frequency, faster deliveries as a new conversion engine, and higher-margin monetization actions (ads plus financial services) to finance the previous two," the text adds.
In this sense, BTG's retail specialists see Mercado Libre as having a slight advantage over its main competitors. "Mercado Libre's current ecosystem (shipping financed by scale, plus payments, credit, and advertising) represents a competitive differentiator," the specialists said.
According to the bank, the company's most significant move in the last 12 months was reducing the minimum spend for free shipping in Brazil, from R$79 to R$19. The strategy aimed to protect purchase frequency and the funnel of low-value items.
The company itself states that the measure is already "generating strong results," with a 29% increase in unique buyers in the country in the third quarter of 2025, compared to the same period of the previous year.
In its third-quarter results announcement, Mercado Libre highlighted growth in items sold and an 8% drop in shipping costs per unit. Even so, BTG sees very fierce competition for the digital consumer in Brazil.
"The practical interpretation for 2026 is that competitive intensity should remain high: the winner will be whoever manages to continue compressing the final cost delivered to the consumer while expanding monetization levers," the document concludes.
According to data compiled by BTG analysts, Shopee has positioned logistics execution as one of the main tools to advance in higher-value categories and with audiences with a higher average ticket price.
The Singaporean company has been steadily improving its delivery speed. In a year-on-year comparison, Shopee's delivery has become two days faster. In Greater São Paulo, one in three packages is now delivered the next day, and almost half within two days.
“Shopee’s competitive stance in Brazil continues to be anchored in the structural efficiency of its logistics. Sea (the platform’s owner) has been reporting lower logistics costs per order, along with faster deliveries across the country, as well as an improved category mix as speed increases,” states BTG.
In the analysts' view, the financial mix reported by the Singaporean platform signals a strategic inclination, in which the revenue of the main marketplace grows consistently year-over-year, while value-added services vary as subsidy dynamics evolve.
Amazon has been on a growth trajectory in its logistics network, with recent announcements of significant speed improvements. Today, the company delivers on the same day in hundreds of Brazilian cities, and within one day in over a thousand municipalities. It also offers free shipping on orders over R$19 for items sold and delivered through its platform.
"From the parent company's perspective, Amazon's latest quarter reinforced the global machine that the company brings to all markets: continued intensity in logistics capacity, a high mix of third-party sellers, and increasing scale in advertising," the analysts explain.
Recently, Amazon announced the growth of its operations in the Northern Region, especially in Amazonas. This resulted in a significant improvement in delivery times. In Manaus, for example, the delivery time dropped to two days.
