Brazil Post nears online shopping mall launch
Correios, the Brazilian post office, is gearing up to open an online shopping ma where small and mid-sized local companies can set up affordable storefronts.
Dubbed CorreiosNet Shopping, the new virtual mall should launch either this mont or next depending on what the post's top brass decides.
Correios officials say that the online mall has been designed to provide all the technical, commercial and logistical infrastructure required to operate a reliab high-quality, secure, low-cost e-business.
Apparently the mall's development was wrapped up in December; the post has been testing it since then with a small bunch of retailers. Post officials attribute market delay to the need to integrate the mall with their legacy infrastructure as training a commercial team to sell it.
Some 400 salespeople are expected to be involved in selling retailers on the mal
Besides hosting and promoting the stores on the mall, CorreiosNet Shopping will integrated with the post's domestic delivery services such as e-Sedex, Sedex and PAC as well as the international delivery service Exporta Facil.
The post plans to provide advertising services to its mall customers.
Pricing for CorreiosNet Shopping depends on the number of products an e-tailer offers and the visibility of his store on the mall. There's a commission on sale Pricing is estimated to range from $7.70-$1,545 a month, a pretty wide range.
Alex do Nascimento, the division head for the mall initiative, described the pro as a complete solution for the electronic retail business.
According to him, Correios will initially target stores that already have an onl presence as well as retailers that are familiar with Internet technologies but d have an online presence. The post is hoping that the greater visibility it can p to existing online merchants as well as its brand will help attract them to the
"We have a strong trusted brand. Our customers can link their brand with the Correios brand," Do Nascimento said.
Sometime next year, the post will take on the more daunting task of wooing retai with little familiarity with the Internet or e-mail.
Correios is forecasting that the mall will have 500 virtual stores by the end of year and 3,100 in five years.
Customers will initially be able to pay for their purchases by credit card, thro banks and starting in Q3 at the post office as well.
The Brazilian post selected a consortium of TBA Informática, Brasil Online, Embratel, Paradigma Tecnologia e Orientação and Universo Online as its technical partner to implement the project. The consortium will be paid an unspecified fee for each e-store.
CorreiosNet Shopping will compete with the six or seven local online malls, thre which supposedly provide an integrated offering. However, Correios officials arg that the Brazilian market is big enough to support multiple players.
Correios is putting about $5.5 million in the shopping mall. Although Do Nascimento is confident that the project will break even in late 2005, it's unce it will ever be profitable. Despite Correios' enthusiasm, the experience of othe postal operators that launched online shopping malls and portals has not been encouraging.
After failing to make headway with its eVita shopping mall, Deutsche Post sold i last year to Lycos Europe. Swiss Post's experience with the Yellowworld portal and online shopping mall was no different. It turned into a $50 million disaster Swiss Post closed it down to focus on providing e-fulfillment capabilities for Internet merchants including logistics, payment and billing services instead.
However, Brazilian post officials are undaunted by the failure of other postal operators and justify the mall project in terms of the digital inclusion of both and sellers and the opportunity provided by e-commerce to boost sales in a geographically large nation.
