#350 – Navigating E-commerce in Latin America: Challenges and Opportunities

#350 - Navigating E-commerce in Latin America: Challenges and Opportunities Speaker 1: Welcome to episode 350 of the AM-PM Podcast. This week's topic is expanding to Latin America. And no, I don't mean setting up in each of the marketplaces yourself and handling all that. I mean, making it super easy. Just ship as things are ordered to Miami and it's all taken care of from there. Whether that's going to Colombia, to Brazil, to Argentina, to Mexico and a host of other countries. My guest today from Nocnoc, Cecilia and Belen will tell you all about how it can work and you can possibly add up to 30% to your top line sales just by expanding to Latin America. And don't forget this summer, I'm debuting the Billion Dollar Sellers newsletter. It's 100% free for listeners of this podcast. So be sure to go to BillionDollarSellers.com and put in your email address and name to get on the beta list so you can be one of the first to get this brand new newsletter. It's gonna be chock full of advice and tips and strategies and hacks for E-com and Amazon sellers. BillionDollarSellers.com. Unknown Speaker: Welcome to the AM-PM Podcast. Welcome to the AM-PM Podcast, where we explore opportunities in E-commerce. We dream big and we discover what's working right now. Plus, this is the podcast where money never sleeps. Working around the clock in the AM and the PM. Are you ready for today's episode? I said, are you ready? Let's do this. Here's your host, Kevin King. Speaker 1: Welcome to the AM PM podcast, Cecilia and Berlin, right? Speaker 2: Yes, right. Speaker 1: How are you girls doing? Speaker 2: Fine, thank you. Hello. Thank you very much for inviting us. It's a pleasure for us being here talking with you, Kevin. Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm happy to have you here. Now, you're talking from Uruguay in South America, right? Speaker 3: Yes, that's true. We are both in Uruguay right now. And yes, we are super excited to be here. So thank you very much for having us. Speaker 1: Now a lot of people, when you say Uruguay, they're like, where the heck is that? They have no idea where that is. I've actually been there. We were talking about that before. It's a small country basically in between Brazil and Argentina, right? Speaker 3: Yes, that's true. Speaker 1: So it's on the east side, the east central basically side of South America. And when I was in Uruguay, it's probably been How long has it been? I was in Uruguay, I think in 2009 was the last time I was there. And I remember touring all over and going to this really famous artist house. It's like a huge mansion on the side of a cliff and everything was like all his art displayed in there. And I'm drawing a blank on the name, but it was really cool that the culture there, that the meat was really, really good. It's like a cowboy culture. In some ways, a lot of raising of beef, right? Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 1: Now you guys are with a company called Nocnoc, N-O-C-N-O-C. And what you guys specialize in is Latin America, helping e-commerce sellers sell more or enter Latin America. You know, there's a lot of people that talk about, especially in our world of Amazon sellers, you should go to Europe. And established on Amazon Europe or right now, you know, a big one that someone's pushing is Japan. You should go to Japan. It's like the fourth biggest market. But what a lot of people forget about is the Latin American market just right here in our same hemisphere. That's, that's, that's really actually a lot of people and it's really, really strong. Talk about that a little bit about the Latin American market in general. Why, why it's actually a good market to consider. Speaker 2: Yeah. And it is growing a lot. Of e-commerce here in our town, for example, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia are excellent countries and for sellers it's really difficult to expand in Latin America. And yes, what Nocnoc does is like we connect sellers from all over the world, especially right now from US and from China also. And with our single platform, our seller center, sellers only have to publish their products And in 24 hours, we'll publish their products in all marketplaces in the town. We have special agreements with all marketplaces and we'll take care of everything, the last-mile shipping, cancellations, refunds, translations, we'll pay in dollars. So, for a seller in the US, for example, it's the same like selling In the U.S., they only have to ship the products to our warehouse in Miami and then forget about everything. We'll publish the products in, for example, in Amazon. The free market in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico. And we'll notify them once they have a sale and we'll ship it to Brazil, to Mexico. It's like really easy, the business model of Nocnoc. And yes, here in Latin, It's a very big market that for a seller is really difficult if they want to expand by themselves. So this solution is like all-in-one solution, let's say. And yes, it's the countries that they are growing a lot since pandemic. E-commerce marketplaces start growing a lot here, so it's a really interesting place to expand and start selling if you already didn't do it. Speaker 3: Yes, Latin America is one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets in the world. A lot of people, as Belen said, are starting to buy online and to gain the trust and the confidence to buy products online, so marketplaces have Get a boom of sales. There is a boom of online sales lately because people are aware of that there are different options, different sales channels and that it's so easy for them to buy online stuff. So the number of people using internet platforms has grown exponentially over the last two years and in Brazil especially people tend to buy things through marketplaces. It's like the main channel for Online shopping and physical shopping is like also people are also transitioning from physical channels to online channels. I think that what has Latin America that other regions don't have is the variety of marketplaces, of different channels that people can choose and if you are only in Amazon, let's say in Amazon Brazil, you will only get a 10% of potential sales because there are a lot of different options and people buy in different channels so it's great to visualize Latin America as a multi-marketplace region and that sellers need to be present in more than just Amazon, more than just eBay, different platforms. Speaker 1: Amazon's in Mexico, they have a presence in Brazil and they're about to open up in Colombia, I believe. Speaker 2: Yes, they do have a presence in those countries, but it's not like in the US, for example, that you can have your products in Amazon. You know you're going to have very good sales. For example, in Brazil, maybe you have like more than 20 marketplaces and it's important to be in most of these marketplaces to get sure you're going to have a good performance. For example, any marketplace has more than 12% of the share maybe. So, it's like in these countries you have multi-marketplaces, no one is like the king, let's say. So, yes, it's like... Speaker 1: Well, MercadoLibre is kind of like the big one, right? Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 1: In all Latin America, they're dominant in most countries, right? Speaker 2: It's important to be in most of marketplaces, but of course MercadoLibre is really well known, but it's one more of all the markets you have here. Speaker 1: One of the big problems with Latin America and e-commerce is Latin America predominantly, with a few exceptions, is a cash based society in most countries. And so that's been a hurdle where a lot of stuff is COD or cash on delivery. And I know like even in Brazil, there's a new system where the Brazil government came out with something like some sort of digital payment system. And that's like making it like super easy to move money around and that's made a huge difference, but that's just Brazil. A lot of the other countries don't have that. So I know like, uh, you know, my, my ex wife is from Columbia and I know there it's a cash society. Uh, you know, when you go into to pay by credit card, they ask you how many months do you want to pay the bill? You know, you go into the grocery store, it's, it's Qantas, uh, Qantas. Uh, it's like how, how, uh, You pay for a $20 toaster and they say you want this over 10 months payments and they hit a number on the credit card and you pay two bucks a month plus interest or whatever. You don't do that in the U.S. so it's a totally different way. So what kind of hurdles are there and how are those being overcome? Speaker 3: Yes, that's true. I mean, like you said, people are used to paying on installments. They don't pay with international credit cards or debit cards. They want to use local cards that most sellers first don't have the payment methods available to process those payments with local cards and also digital wallets. For example, MercadoLibre has its own digital wallet called MercadoBao, but other Other marketplaces also have the possibility for you to pay, I don't know, go to a place, deposit the money and pay the seller using money as you said. Speaker 1: So if I want to order on MercadoLibre and I don't have most, like a lot of people in Latin America don't have credit cards. I mean the upper middle class and the richer people do but the vast majority don't so They're having to go to the local Exito or local supermarket and pay, give $10 and say put this on my Mercado Libre digital wallet or not $10 but 10 pesos or whatever it is. And then they have like that account that they draw from whenever they order something. So it puts, impulse buys are less because of that probably. Speaker 3: Yes, here are multiple financial institutions where you can, as you said, put money and deposit money and they will put it online for you so you can pay things because people are not used to having credit cards or international credit cards also. Speaker 1: So how does that affect the average order? Does that mean that things that sell in Latin America are typically not as online, not as expensive as things that sell like in the US? Do you have to think about that in those terms if you're a seller? Unknown Speaker: Yeah, of course. Speaker 2: Payments is one of the barriers for a seller if they want to expand their products by the month to later, because they have to take the money from here. Of course, you have to have some taxes, duties, marketplaces, commissions to mark up your costs. So, products here are much more expensive than if you buy them in the U.S. But what happens is that people here are used to pay much more money for a product that they won't find here in Latin America. There in US, maybe you have a lot of products or brands or I don't know, you find them easily. But here, we are recently starting to have more and more options. So for us, it's normal to pay more for a product that you are going to pay them Yes. So yes, that is normal here. We know that prices here are much more expensive than in US and if it's a product I won't fight here, I will pay for it. Speaker 1: Yeah, like even like things like the Apple Store, I don't even know if there's any Apple Stores in South America. There's iStores and they call them different names and it's like Apple products but everything in there is like I've been in those like in Panama and in Colombia and a few other places and they're super expensive compared to here. Yeah, true. So that's why a lot of people that have passports or visas that come to the U.S., you always see them stocking up. You go to Miami and there's, you know, an Avianca or Copa Airlines flight or a TAM flight or something, there's tons of boxes of people bringing TVs and all kinds of stuff all the time. Speaker 2: For example, in Mexico, it's a really good country to buy in marketplaces, in e-commerce, for example, computers, cell phones and all tech products because yes, it's a really good country. I think that the best one maybe to buy these type of products. Speaker 1: Is Mexico? Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: And then have it shipped to like your country or what do you mean just in general to buy? Speaker 2: No, for Mexican people to buy E-commerce, it's really normal to buy like computers, cell phones and all these type of products by E-commerce. Speaker 1: I know like Amazon... Speaker 2: It's a really good option for technological sellers in US, for example, to expand to Mexico. Because maybe in other countries like Brazil, you can have some restrictions in prices or in weight, but maybe in Mexico, no. So this is something really good of Nocnoc, that we have special teams, that we have the knowledge and the know-how that which type of products and categories are the best ones to expand in which country. Because it's not the same loss you have in Mexico, that in Colombia, that in Brazil. So depending on what are you selling, we perfectly know. Speaker 1: So I know like Amazon US, I can be in Colombia or somewhere else in South America and I can order from Amazon US and have it one of two things. In some cases if the seller in the US is marked, there's an option in your settings where you allow export of your items. You can restrict that or you can allow it and if it's one of the countries that Amazon will ship to then you can actually order from the U.S. and Amazon will actually ship it to that country and it arrives in some cases in a day or two some cases a couple weeks or you can a lot of people what they do is they have a mailbox drop in like Miami and it's a forwarder so they order all their stuff and then once a week they box it all up and they ship it down. I know a lot of expats that do that. So how is your system different? You said earlier, I'm shipping everything to Miami. Then are you then taking it to these individual countries? Are you keeping it in Miami? And when someone orders it in Colombia or Peru or Ecuador or Uruguay, then you're shipping it from Miami warehouse to them? Or how does that process work? Speaker 2: We have our warehouse in Miami. And once the customer buys a product, They have to ship it once they are notified to our warehouse in Miami. So for them, they only have to ship it to their own country. And then, Nocnoc, we are going to make the shipping to Mexico or to Colombia or to Brazil. So for a seller in US, they don't have to ship it to Brazil or to Colombia. For them, it's like the same. They only have to give us their FOB price, the amount of money they expect to get by any sale they have. And then they only ship it there in Miami. So for them it's like, for sellers it's not like expanding really to LATAM. It's like selling in their own country. Speaker 1: So you're basically acting as the forwarder. So you're what basically makes sure I understand If I'm selling a dog bowl and I want to sell this dog bowl into Latin America, you're going to say, okay, these are the, out of the 30 or however many countries there are in Latin America, you're going to say, these are the best ones for dog bowl. I think the dog bowl will go. You will take my listing or my information, translate it to Spanish or Portuguese, depending on where it's going and then, or French in some cases maybe, and then take that and List it in those different market. Like you said, there's like 20 of them. You'll list it in as many of those as you can. And then when someone buys, they're paying to your account, uh, cause you're set up with these marketplaces and then your system will then notify me and says, Hey Kevin, we just sold a two dog bowls to Columbia and three to Peru. So then I'm, I'm not, I'm going to package up five of mine and send a box of five to your warehouse in Miami or I'm sending an individual ones for each individual order. Speaker 2: You can pack it all together and send it once to our warehouse in Miami, yes, of course. And also, if we identify, for example, some of your products are really good sale and you have like some SKUs that are top selling, we also can make fulfillment in our warehouse so you don't have to ship one by one once you have a sale. So... Speaker 1: Once you see that I'm more... Once you see that I've proven that, okay... Speaker 2: Once you see that we are a seller and we see that some of the products are really good sale, We offer fulfillment and we won't charge anything for the sellers. We'll keep your products and we ship one by one so you, seller, don't have to ship one by one to us. Speaker 1: Okay. So if my dog will start in the beginning, I'm going to have to ship one by one or every day, a few of them, depending on the orders. But if you see in that, Hey, we're selling a hundred of these a month in Columbia and 50 of them a month in Peru, I can ship you like five cases, you know, 200 units and you store it in your, in your Miami warehouse. And then when those customers order, you guys are taking care of getting it to them at the final destination. So how much? Speaker 2: In one or two days, If you are notified that you have sales, like five sales in Brazil, two in Colombia, one in Mexico. You pack it all together, you send it to us. But of course, it's important when we start with a seller, we prefer like starting with the typical model, like they ship us one by one or they put everything in a box and in the final of the day, they ship it to us. And once we understand their sales, their shippings, the products they have, Which of these products are like the best sellers? Then yes, it's easier for us to offer a fulfillment because of course that the idea of this is a make it when a product is very good sale and we know That they're going to have, I don't know, but we make fulfillment with 30 products of this SKU, so we ask for the seller if they can give us 30 products of, I don't know, a LOL for example. We have a lot of choice sellers and maybe like we know some products are really good sell, like LOLs or I don't know, a lot of brands, you know. Maybe when we get sure they can make like 30 sales in this month, we'll make the fulfillment of that product. Speaker 1: In the beginning, I'm probably not making any money as a seller because my dog bowl is $19.95 on Amazon. Amazon will ship that for me for let's say $4 fulfillment fee and they're going to take a 15% commission. So they're going to take $7 on my $19.95. If I am selling this bowl through you guys for $19.95 and I got to send them one by one, I don't have the economies of scale of Amazon. Even if I'm using Amazon to ship it to you, I'm still going to be in $6 to $8 probably my cost just to ship it to you. And then what kind of fee do you take on the sale? What's your commission? Speaker 2: First of all, it's not the same like selling to Amazon than to us because Amazon will charge you a commission that we won't charge that commission. You have to, Amazon, I don't remember exactly what amount, but I think that selling with Amazon maybe is going to be like a 20% that you have to pay Amazon for publishing the products. So for us, you won't have that. And in the other hand, If you have your products with fulfillment with Amazon, yes, I think that Amazon charges you like, I don't know, about $3 when you ship a product for us, for example. But a lot of sellers have their own warehouse, so they only have to pay shipping with all the products they sell in a day. And maybe, for example, they have, I don't know, 30 sales in a day and they'll pay one shipping with the 30 products. Speaker 1: You're mixing a bunch of different products in the same box to get that cost down. Speaker 2: Of course. Speaker 1: And so as a seller, how fast do I have to ship to you? So if you get an order in Mexico and in Colombia and it's just two units because I just started, how long do I have to get my fulfillment, my 3PL or to ship that out to you? Speaker 2: The idea is to make it like in three days. Speaker 1: Or to get to you in three days or to ship it? Speaker 2: No, for us, of course. You ship it to us more or less in two, three days and then you will forget about the rest. We'll ship it to Colombia, to Mexico. People in Brazil, in Mexico, they are used to wait like one, two, three weeks for a product. That is a normal time for us. But for sellers, it's important to ship like quickly, like in three days, because we have like some restrictions of times with marketplaces. So the orders must be like shipped in three days to have like a good rate in the stores of the marketplaces. So that is like best for sellers because if you have a better reputation it's going to be easier for you to continue shipping. And continue selling well with us. Speaker 1: When you're getting it from Miami down to these countries, if you're getting it there that fast, you're not sending it by boat, you're sending it by air, right? So everything is, do you have your own like airplanes? Are you buying space on freighters or extra space on like commercial airlines? Speaker 2: We have like special agreements with some shipping companies. So, yes, depending to which country and which type of products and which times we must ship, it will depend with which company will make it. But yes, of course, we make different partnerships with shipping companies. Speaker 1: So in Latin America, what you're saying, it's not like here where someone, they order on e-commerce, they expect to have it in a day or two, maybe three days max. In Latin America, they're used to like waiting a week or two weeks. Kind of like if here in the U.S. we order something from AliExpress or a drop shipper that was running Facebook ads, it says, please allow three to four weeks for shipping because it's coming from China and everybody gets... Speaker 2: Yes, imagine that you are, for example, I don't know, in Brazil, We're in Amazonas and you're buying something from China. So you won't expect to get that product in two days. And if you're like buying something from E-commerce in China, you're buying it because you really want it. And maybe that product, you can't buy it in your own country. It's really difficult for you to access to local markets. So you won't mind waiting two weeks maybe to get that product. Of course, we are always improving timings, shippings, but it's difficult because we have sellers. Not all sellers are in Miami or, I don't know, next to our warehouse in China, and not all costumes are like, I don't know, in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro. We have Brazil, for example, it's really big and we have people buying products. All over Brazil, so it really depends the arriving time, when are you located, of course. Speaker 1: How are returns in Latin America? In the US, people return stuff for any reason and it's like crazy, but in Latin America, the culture is not so used to returning something for any reason, so are returns a little bit lower? How does that work? How do you handle that? Speaker 3: I mean, people is, I think the culture here is like, if the product is okay, I will keep it, of course. But of course, I think in some cases, there are cancellations and returns. So when that happens, usually Nocnoc takes the product to our warehouse in Brazil so in that way the seller just doesn't have to pay for the reverse logistic needed to turn the product back to the warehouse in Miami. So in that way we keep the product in Brazil and we wait until a new sale appears and in that way we ship it from here. In some cases that is, I mean, Usually that works very fine for us and for the sellers. We also try to reduce the cancellation rates a lot with our team, with our team providing this support for all consumers inquiries. But yes, I think the culture here is less used to cancel. I think in the US, if you don't like something or if it's not what you expected, you will cancel. Here, I think once you get the product, Unless it is broken or this doesn't work you will keep it and of course you will communicate with the seller if you don't like something but I think we are not so used to, okay I need to return this because we know that it's not that we get it immediately in your hands. We don't want to wait for the product to return and we get the money back. We just keep it. Speaker 1: If I'm a seller and I come to you and say I want to expand to Latin America and I've got 50 SKUs, am I allowed to send all 50? Or are you like, no, Kevin, these 10 here, you know, the quality is not so good. I look at your reviews on Amazon. We're not going to take that or we don't think it's going to work. Or how does that work? Do you actually have to agree to take the SKUs or pretty much anything I want to send, you will list? Speaker 2: Yeah. Of course, we first, before we upload a template or we make an integration with a seller, we have a team that is specialized in analyzing the catalog of the sellers. Of course, we make it and right now, we are much more focused in uploading products we know they are going to sell good. It's not like uploading a catalog of thousands of products. We are like studying and choosing like one by one the ones that we know you are going to sell really good. It's faster. We won't make you waste your time. We prefer to say like, okay, look, you have like 30 products that are excellent. Let's push this. Let's boost your sales. We can help you with marketing actions. We can make cashbacks. We have like banners and special places in marketplaces to promote your products. So let's start with this. And of course, then we'll continue with all your products. But it's better for the sellers that identify those products that have like more possibilities here. Because maybe for example, I don't know, but you sell like, I don't know, we have sellers that sell a lot of categories, only one company. And we know that, for example, the prices of all your toys are really high. If you want to sell in Latin America, you have to make like a 40% of discount, but you only also have like, I don't know, cosmetics. And here you have excellent brands and really good prices because we, first of all, we compare with local prices and local brands. And we'll say, once you are starting, like, let's start with this and this and these brands. And if you can make like this price, it's going to be excellent because you are going to be the cheapest in the marketplace. We can help you to less your product. We always make that with sellers. We are like continue like talking every day and we are always looking they can have good sales. So yes, brands, categories and prices are. Speaker 1: Can you give me an example of someone that just crushed it? Someone that worked with you guys and all of a sudden they're selling like a hundred a day or something. Or is there an example of someone that's just like, like just making so much money, it's ridiculous? Speaker 2: Yes, of course. We have sellers that I can't tell who, but really important companies in US, for example, Today they are selling like the 30% of themselves in US, the 30% they are selling LATAM with Nocnoc only. And they are excellent. For example, some categories like perfumes, cosmetics or toys, if you have like good prices, good brands, you can make a lot of money here. Yes, of course, because people here look for brands, for new products, unique products and maybe in US you are used to buy like You find every perfumes in Sephora or in, I don't know, in Choice, in Mattel, in any place and here it's really difficult to get some products and to get access for that. So people like buy a lot of e-commerce for some unique brands and they don't have problem to pay much more for them if they really want them. Speaker 1: What about the packaging? Do I need to change everything to Spanish and Portuguese or I can leave everything in English? Speaker 3: We will make sure that the product description, the product titles, everything in the market base is listed okay and you don't need to change everything or translate anything I mean or We will sell the product just as you have it and then we will make sure that the consumer understands everything and we can also translate the packaging and put it in the description so people understand what are they getting. Speaker 1: What about instructions and stuff like that? I don't need to put my... Speaker 2: Here we are really used to buy products with instructions and descriptions in English. Yes, of course, like Ceci already mentioned, in the marketplaces, we'll translate everything to local languages, but yes, the packaging, we don't have problem and here also, maybe you go to the supermarket or to, I don't know, to the shopping to buy something and the instructions are in English and we are used to that. Speaker 1: Okay, so what kind of fees do you guys take? How does the process work? Do I set a wholesale price to you and then you market up whatever you think you can get or is it a flat percentage off of every sale? Because the marketplace, if you sell my dog bowl in MercadoLibre, MercadoLibre is taking a fee and then you have the cost of fulfilling it or someone does have the cost of fulfilling it because you're doing like kind of an FBM model with MercadoLibre because you're shipping it from your warehouse Um, so how, how does that whole, how does that process work? What am I looking at as far as like fees or costs that I need to bake in? Speaker 2: The seller has to say as like, okay, this is my, these are my products. This is the FOB price and the amount of money I need to get by any sale. And this is my stock of each product. That is the only information sellers have to give us. Then, to the FOB price, of course, we have to mark up some costs, like last-minute shipping, Costumes, marketplaces commission, like for example, it's not the same commission if you are selling in Amazon or MercadoLibre or in Carrefour or in Walmart. But yes, we have to mark up that. And of course, that in some products, if there is a space, we make like an extra markup for Nocnoc because we invest a lot, for example, in marketing actions, we push your products in Different spaces in marketplaces, we put discounts that we can help you with the discounts. So there is like a little commission, a person that Nocnoc will add to your products, but everything is going to be paid by the final Customer, not for the seller. The seller for them is like the same because they only have to give us like the FOB price and in that price we are going to mark up the costs. So for them it's like the same if we add or we don't add any price for Nocnoc. But of course, we won't mark up this commission in all products because what we are looking for is sellers can sell and if you are like very just in your final price, we'll probably won't add anything and if there is another product, we see a fit that we can mark up something, maybe we'll make it. So, it depends. In some categories, it's easier for us. In some ones, maybe we won't add anything. It depends. Speaker 1: So in my case, like back to this dog bowl example, if I have a dog bowl that I sell in the U.S. for $20 on Amazon, my cost, my landing cost on that let's say is $3 from the factory, then I've got to put my market on it. So I tell you, My FOB price is, let's say $6. I'm going to double it. So I'm going to make $3 profit off of each one you sell. My $6 is FOB price. And then I got to pay to ship it to you. So if I'm not shipping a lot of them to you, maybe in the beginning, I'm not able to ship a bunch to you. I'm having to ship one at a time. Maybe it's costing me $6 or $7 for each one of those to get shipped. So it's costing me $13. For this item. And then, but my FOB price to you was six. So I'm losing money on every single one of them. Or I tell you my F the FOB price is $14. So I can make a dollar and then you're selling this. You have to put your margin and you're spending, like you said, you're doing all the promotions. So you're selling this, this dog bowl in Latin America for $40, the equivalent of $40 or something like double. Does that work? Does that model work? Speaker 2: It's normal. We are used to pay the double that you pay there. Speaker 3: Yes, if you bring products by ourselves, importing individually, we'll pay sometimes double or triple because we as consumers also have to pay fees to get a product in our hands from customs, the shipping, so for us, using platforms like Nocnoc is better because for us, final consumer, will be cheaper than if we bring the product by ourselves using. Speaker 1: You're saying it's better for me if I'm in Uruguay and I want to order something and I see it on Amazon US, I could order it on Amazon US and probably have it shipped to me, but I'm going to pay more than if I see that same product in Nocnoc because you're doing economies of scale. And so people therefore want to go to Nocnoc to actually, and they know they trust you guys and all that kind of stuff. That's what you're saying, the advantages. Speaker 3: Yes, exactly. Speaker 1: Okay. So how many different SKUs does Nocnoc have right now across Latin America? Is it thousands? Tens of thousands? Speaker 2: We have hundreds and hundreds of sellers, so imagine the amount of SKUs we have. Speaker 1: How does a seller get paid? Is it once a month you send a report and a payment? Is it every two weeks? Do we get paid when you get paid? How does that work? Speaker 2: When the order arrives in the country, The sellers have like an account in our sales center and they have their like a balance and they can see all the orders and which statutes are the orders and they can see like the payments and we'll pay twice a month, every first and every 15th, we'll pay the sellers in dollars all the orders they already been arrived. Speaker 1: You keep a, so you're basically, you're getting, you're the conduit, but you're getting everything on consignment. So you guys don't have to go out and buy a whole bunch of, Nocnoc doesn't have to buy the inventory. You, you just provide the means to actually get it there. So, so you're able to expand with less cashflow instead of being a, A Walmart or something where you're actually having to buy all this stuff, you're just buying what basically sells and then marketing it up and making your businesses and the logistics of getting it there. So do you have big brands doing this? They're like well-known, you know, like, you don't have to name the brands, but like the Nikes and Adidas and the Chanel perfumes, or is it mostly private label people that are working with you that are doing their own stuff? Speaker 2: Yes, we have a lot. We have like really good known brands, of course, and we only also have like brands that maybe they are only selling in US and in Latin they are new and we have them expanding, but of course that there we have like to make a brand awareness. It is not the same to start selling a perfume of a really known brand Maybe in two days we'll make you start selling, but if it's a new brand in these countries, we have to make like a job first as well. Speaker 3: We have to push sales by doing marketing efforts, by doing competitive price analysis and we do that because we are committed to helping sellers expand in Latin America. So yes, if there is a seller that only is All their lives sold products in U.S. and they target our U.S. customers and they never sold their products in Latin America so the brand is new. We will help them and make a An impact in the marketplaces with localised marketing activities and campaigns so that consumers in Latin America start looking at their products and start buying from them and we have got impressive results doing that. A lot of brands that were new and started to get sales. Speaker 1: Are you spending all the money on the advertising? So off of your side is all any kind of advertising and promotional stuff, right? So I'm not sharing in that cost. If you're going to run some sort of PPC or ads, that comes out of your commission or your piece of the price, right? Speaker 3: Yes, we have our own budget to promote products, so we also sometimes work with sellers and tell them, okay, we have this idea, we want to promote this product in this campaign, so it's not just us spending money in promoting products, so sometimes we work together to determine the best efforts. Or we do actions together, we give a cashback and we ask the seller to also make a discount on their end. Speaker 2: Also, for example, we have blogs and we can publish new products there, or we can make campaigns with local influencers, so we are really experts in helping new brands also expanding to that town. Speaker 1: Which countries are the best in Latin America? If you had to name, these are the five best countries, which would those be? Speaker 3: Brazil, I think is on the top three for sure. Speaker 2: Yeah, but maybe it depends on the category, you know? Because it's not the same selling computers in Brazil, you can't. And in Mexico and Colombia are the best countries for this. But otherwise, if you're selling cosmetics, Brazil is the best country. But yes, I think that the top three, let's say, right now are like Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. But of course, it will depend on the marketplace. Your products and your price because, for example, in Brazil, if your products are more than, I don't know, 50 FOB price, maybe you can't sell there and you have to go to Mexico. So where is the best? It really depends on your brands and your products. Also, maybe in Mexico, there are some brands you can't sell, so you must be in Brazil. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 2: So it's like, once you start, we'll start your products and we're going to say where are the best local markets for you. Speaker 1: What type of products don't really work? Like you said, expensive, if it's more than $50 FOB, it's probably going to be difficult. Speaker 2: Yeah. In Brazil, in Mexico, you can sell, I know computers of $500. Okay. Speaker 1: But in Brazil, it's hard to sell a $500 computer by e-commerce. Speaker 2: Yeah. But for example, difficult categories. I don't know, but maybe you have like... Speaker 3: There are some products that have restrictions. For example, to put you an example, in Mexico you can't sell human-shaped dolls for kids, but you can sell them as action figures or collectibles. So, there are certain products that you have to study the law and regulations, Or, for example, in Brazil you can sell, I don't know, a product that weighs more than 3 kilos, but in other countries you can't. So, I think, I mean, there are lists of products that you can import, but of course it also depends on the weight, on the size, on other aspects that you need to understand how the law work and how QStone will revise your product. Speaker 1: You guys handle all that, right? All the customs and duties and tariffs and everything. You guys handle, handle all that stuff. So as a seller, I don't have to worry about anything. Speaker 2: Yes. Speaker 3: As a seller, you only have to give us your ASINs, your SQIs and we will study everything and tell you, okay, these products are a great fit for these markets and that those, those other products, you can sell them. So maybe you need to, I don't know, instead of, selling this way, you can sell it that way, or maybe you have to wait until a new law appears and you can sell them. So we will, of course, give you advice, professional advice and everything, and determine which products are the best for the market. Speaker 1: How many different actual countries is Nocnoc in? Is it 17? Is it 20? Is it 10? How many different countries are you actually active in? Speaker 2: We are in six countries. Speaker 3: Of course always thinking of expanding to new ones so this year we hope to be in four more but it's something we are not yet but we are working on that. Speaker 1: Which six are those? Speaker 3: Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia. Peru and also we want to expand to Chile. Speaker 1: Okay, I'm surprised you're not in Chile already. I would think that would be a pretty good market. Speaker 3: Yes, yes, we know. Speaker 1: Any plans to do any more of Central America, like Costa Rica or Panama or anything like that? Or is that not really on the radar right now? Speaker 2: Yes, we are looking to expand month by month. We are growing a lot. We are always looking for new markets, new categories, new countries to expand and also new countries and new continents to bring products from. So yes, we are always looking for new markets and this type of business you may know that they are growing day by day and every day are different things. New to understand, we are learning every day new things. So this game is like changing every day, but this is like the happy thing of working here. Yes. Speaker 1: When did Nocnoc begin? Speaker 2: 200... Speaker 3: 2018 was the company founded. And yes, since then we have been growing a lot and expanding in new markets. So yes, It was founded in 2018. Yeah. Speaker 1: So were the founders, uh, were they e-commerce people or were they, uh, logistics people or just had a good idea and decided to do this? Speaker 2: We have like three founders. One of them is like 19, 19, 19 years old. Yeah. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 2: Yeah. And the other two are like more like, Yes, commercial. One is like the CEO and that is in charge of expanding and looking for new markets and the other one is like also commercial but more in focus in new channels, new sellers, seeing like what is happening day by day here. Speaker 1: And what if I'm a selling, I'm a European, I'm listening to this and I'm based in Europe. I don't sell in the US. Do I still have to ship all my stuff to your warehouse in Miami or how does that work? If I'm, I'm listening to this and I'm only selling in the UK and Germany right now, but this sounds interesting to me and I'd like to try it. How would I do that? Speaker 2: Probably you will have to wait if you won't have to ship to Miami because Europe is Maybe our next step, so we are going forward, but not right now. Speaker 3: Yes, right now we only have warehouses in China and in the U.S. Speaker 1: So explain that, so you have a warehouse in China, so if I'm manufacturing in China, I can send my stuff to your Chinese warehouse and you'll take it from China all the way to Latin America? Speaker 2: Yes. We expand products from U.S. and from China to all Latin America. Speaker 1: Okay, so if my dog bowls start selling and I'm ordering 5,000 dog bowls, I could have 500 of those shipped to your factory in China for you guys to get all the way over and I'd ship the other 4,500 to me here in the US and I don't have to mess with shipping anything to Miami. You guys will take it from there. Speaker 3: Yes, we can do that. Yes. Speaker 1: Okay, that's good. Okay. What else do I need to know about expanding to Latin America? Anything else that I should know? Speaker 3: There are a lot of things. Speaker 2: You must try it. I think that trying it and contacting us, for us it's going to be a pleasure to see your products, your brand, analyze you and help you to expand very quickly here. Speaker 3: Yes, creating an account with Nocnoc is free, so you can try it and if you are not happy with the results, if you Don't think it will work with your brand. You can simply ask us to remove you, to remove your account. But as Belen said, I think it's important to try because some sellers maybe are afraid to enter a new market or afraid about how it works. And then they get really surprised by all the sales they get. So I think it's a matter of try and see how it works. I think a lot of sellers have the opportunity to expand to Latin America with us. To be present in more than 15 marketplaces and have their products featured in those marketplaces to get the brand known by Latin American people. Yeah, so they have to try us. Speaker 1: How would they do that? If they want to try you, where would they go? To nocnoc.com? Speaker 3: We have a website that is nocnocstore.com and if they go there, they will have an option to get started, to sign up. And as soon as they sign up, we will receive the registration. We will, of course, Contact them in under 48 hours. In most cases it's immediately, but in China, for example, with the With the time difference, it's in less than 48 hours and as soon as we revise their products and we see a potential, we will create them an account and as soon as they upload their products in our platform, they will get published in our marketplaces. So, as I said before, they have to go to our website, which is nocnocstore.com and sign up there. Speaker 1: It's N-O-C-N-O-C and what's the last part? Speaker 3: N-O-C-N-O-C, store.com. Speaker 1: Store, store. S-T-O-R-E. Yes. Speaker 3: Okay. Speaker 1: Awesome. Well, this has been great. I really appreciate you coming on, Belen and Cecilia, and this has been awesome. Some good information and it's got me excited to give it a try. Speaker 3: Yes, it was great to speak to you. Speaker 2: Thank you very much for your time and for inviting us here. It was a pleasure and really, really nice to talk with you. So yes, for any seller that is listening for us, don't hesitate in contacting us and it will be a pleasure to help you. Speaker 1: Awesome. Thanks again, ladies. Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Speaker 3: Thank you very much. Speaker 2: Bye bye. Speaker 1: As you can see, Latin America is a huge market that's eager to buy quality products from sellers like yourself and myself, and they're willing to pay a premium price and they're willing to wait for it. Surprisingly, it's a great, great opportunity to test the waters out. So if you're interested, be sure to go to nocnocstore.com Get more information and see if this might be right for you. You never know, you may add some serious dollars to your bottom line and it sounds like it's pretty easy to try it out. We'll be back again next week with another great episode of the AM-PM Podcast. In the meantime, leaving you with some words of wisdom, you know you only need to be a little bit better than the competition to secure all the reward. You only need to be a little bit better than the competition to secure all of the reward. See you again next week.