Argentina Shipping and Selling eCommerce Guide

Argentina, one of Latin America’s largest economies, represents a great opportunity for online merchants seeking to expand cross-border. The country boasts a dynamic economy, a digitally-savvy population, and clear receptiveness to online shopping.

Before your company starts shipping to Argentina, it’s important to better understand its eCommerce market, online shopping habits of Argentinians, import restrictions, and the like.

There are several unique challenges associated with shipping to the country, namely, its high import taxes and duties for many popular product categories. However, knowing what they are specifically and building trust with your customers can go a long way toward making the shipping process much more simple, efficient, and transparent.

To that end, here’s a closer look at the specifics of shipping to Argentina!

Rapid eCommerce Growth in Argentina

Argentina has a population of 43 million with a total GDP of $585 billion. The eCommerce industry is strong and seeing robust growth in the South American nation, which is expected to grow by 83 percent in total by 2022 thanks to the fast-growing popularity of mobile eCommerce in the country and the growing popularity of online shopping in general.

Likewise, Argentina currently has 18.5 million eCommerce users, a figure expected to grow to 19.9 million by 2021. Internet penetration in the country is nearly 70 percent and rising, with younger people under the age of 25 being especially savvy in using the Internet frequently.

All in all, the country’s growing eCommerce market, the boom in smartphone usage, and the tech-savvy younger population make it ideal for online merchants looking to expand cross-border to Latin America.

Online Marketplaces A Mix of Local, Global Options

Both local and global online marketplaces are popular for online shopping in Argentina. A few of these include:

• MercadoLibre
• eBay
• Amazon
• Netshoes
• Alibaba
• Garbarino.com
• Musimundo.com
• Fravega
• Apple
• Cencosud

Fashion Dominates as Most Popular Product Category

Fashion products are the most popular online shopping product category in Argentina. The second-most popular category and major revenue contributor is toys and hobby items, followed closely by electronics and media devices. Travel, furniture and appliances, and food items are also regularly purchased online in the country.

Mobile Payments Popular in Argentina

Before you start shipping to Argentina, it’s important to make sure your online store has diversified, secure payment options, preferably tailored to your target market. The top payment method in Argentina is mobile payment, while other popular methods are prepaid cards, bank transfers, and credit cards.

Shipping to Argentina

Shipping to Argentina from the U.S. and other countries requires knowledge of the couriers that offer reliable delivery services to the country. Fortunately, USPS and major private couriers such as UPS, FedEx, and DHL all deliver to Argentina, as does SkyPostal, a courier specializing in the Latin American market.

Easyship makes shipping to Argentina much easier too, offering access to more than 250 shipping solutions with discounted rates, plus shipment tracking and label generation services. You can use our rates calculator to calculate and evaluate the shipping rates of different courier companies, offering greater transparency for your business when shipping and selling to Argentina.

Import Restrictions for Argentina

Before you start shipping to Argentina, it’s important to understand what can and can’t be imported into the country. Here’s a quick look at some restricted and prohibited items in Argentina!

Restricted Items in Argentina:

• Cell phones
• Pharmaceutical products
• Digital cameras and laptops
• Used clothing

Prohibited Items in Argentina:

• Alcoholic beverages
• Animal products and skin
• Cosmetics
• Drugs
• Military equipment
• Tea and coffee
• Tobacco
• Soil samples

A more exhaustive list can be found here.

It’s also important to better understand the taxes and duties you might face when shipping to Argentina. For that, be sure to use Easyship’s Argentina tax and duty calculator so you don’t run into any unexpected (and unwelcome) surprises when shipping to the country!

Notably, shipping to Argentina can get expensive as the country has a $0 tax and duty threshold and import duties for popular categories such as fashion are 35 percent. However, by making your customers fully aware of these added costs, you can build trust with them and ship to Argentina much more seamlessly.

Argentina: A Growing eCommerce Opportunity

Argentina represents an outstanding eCommerce opportunity in South America thanks to its rapid adoption of mobile eCommerce, robust economy, and Internet-savvy population. Sign up for Easyship today for free to make shipping to Argentina much simpler and more transparent!

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