Why Amazon doesn't have a warehouse and delivers directly to the DR? (2015, country)

[AntonioR]

I always thought the reason Amazon doesn't have a warehouse in Santo Domingo is because it thinks it's a very small market. Maybe a few thousand dollars or a million or two dollars worth of packages are bought in Amazon and shipped via a third party to the DR.

Think again. Today there is an article in the Listín Diario that looks into the courier business in the DR during 2023. Keep in mind this will only continue to grow.

Total value of all packages sent via couriers to the DR amounted to US$3.4 billion. Wait a moment and let that sink in.

Just the packages sent from Miami amounted to more than US$1.1 billion. Miami is only one of several places in the USA where Dominican couriers get American packages,

There is no data (at least not in the article, but this probably exist) regarding how much of that correspond to purchases in US stores, particularly those on the internet like Amazon. I can tell you most packages bought by Dominicans in the DR in Amazon, use Dominican couriers that have Amazon ship the packages to their warehouses in Miami and then they ship it to the DR for the Dominican customer to pick them up.

If Amazon creates a warehouse in Santo Domingo, not only will delivery be faster but they most likely will increase sales as the shorter wait time to get your stuff is another incentive to buy from them.

In the DR, anything that is bought on the internet for less than US$200 is tax exempt.


Listín Diario 1/3/24

[kagomechan]

But they have in other latin american countries? i don't understand you point.

[AntonioR]

Originally Posted by kagomechan

But they have in other latin american countries? i don't understand you point.

Yes they do, in fact they recently open their biggest warehouse in Mexico City.

The e-commerce giant launched in Mexico in 2015 and has since invested 52 billion pesos ($3 billion) in an effort to attract more shoppers in Latin America's second-biggest economy and get an edge on competitors such as Argentina-based Mercado Libre (MELI.O), opens new tab and retail giant Walmart (WMT.N), opens new tab.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/a...ca-2023-09-14/

Economically Mexico is better off than most Latin American countries and its middle class is huge, bigger than entire populations of many Latin American countries.

The Dominican Republic simply had (and continues to have) a greater increase in the standards of living of the average person than in most (to not say all) of the other countries in Latin America. The Dominican consumer base for Amazon will simply grow in the near future. The DR is strategically placed in the Caribbean that Amazon could treat the entire sub-region as one market and use a Dominican based warehouse to service Amazon orders in all the islands from Cuba to Trinidad.

Mexico is big enough that they can have one or several warehouses in that country just to service Mexico, but things are different in Central America & the Caribbean.

The following figures are in PPP. The middle percentage is at the rate standads of living are increasing (or decreasing when negative) in each country from 2018 to 2023.


https://www.larepublica.co/globoecon...e-2023-3784144

[EVANGELISTTI]

The point is that if Dominicans buy up to $200 from abroad online without paying taxes, if Amazon imports stocks into the country itself, it will pay taxes and will have to pass it on to consumers and will not have prices as attractive as before.