Amazon begins to offer electronics in Brazil from third-party sellers

Key highlights:

• Amazon.com Inc began offering electronics from third-party sellers to Brazilian shoppers on Wednesday
• The long-awaited move will offer televisions, cell phones and laptops from hundreds of independent sellers on Amazon`s website in Brazil
• It will not involve the company in the tricky logistics that have hurt many online retailers in the country

Amazon.com Inc began offering electronics from third-party sellers to Brazilian shoppers on Wednesday, expanding beyond books in the fiercely competitive e-commerce market in Latin America's largest economy.

The long-awaited move will offer televisions, cell phones and laptops from hundreds of independent sellers on Amazon`s website in Brazil without involving the company in the tricky logistics that have hurt many online retailers in the country.

Alex Szapiro, Amazon`s country manager in Brazil, declined to say if there were plans for the company to stock its own electronics inventory or open a fulfillment center to ship third-party goods more efficiently, as it did simultaneously with the launch of independent sellers in Mexico two years ago.

"Each country has a different playbook," said Szapiro in an interview with Reuters at Amazon headquarters in Sao Paulo. He helped launch the company`s Brazil business with e-books in 2012 after running operations for Apple Inc in the country for five years.

Shares of local e-commerce rivals MercadoLibre Inc, Magazine Luiza SA and B2W Cia Digital have fallen 14%, 17% and 20%, respectively, in the past week on concerns of heightened competition from Amazon.

Keeping pace with the local e-commerce market, Amazon will parcel purchases into as many as 10 monthly installments without interest, a practice the company started in Brazil for Kindle e-reader sales in 2014, then extended to Mexico and other markets.

Sellers will be paid up-front, minus a 10 percent commission to Amazon and fees of 19 reais ($6) per month or 2 reais per item. Szapiro called the 10 percent commission a "promotional" rate without saying when or how much it would eventually rise.

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