Amazon on Thursday announced it will be launching sales of food and drinks in Mexico, including snacks, sweets and wines, a move that could intensify its competition with Wal Mart de Mexico to claim shoppers in a nascent e-commerce market.
Online shopping represents a fraction of total retail sales in Mexico but has grown swiftly, putting Amazon and its rivals in a race to ramp up investments in logistics, technology and product offerings.
Amazon views food and drink sales as key to growth, eyeing regular purchases to stock pantries as a way to generate other types of sales, but has yet to dominate the category.
The new items on its Mexico site, which it officially launched in 2015, span coffees and teas as well as liquors, wines and beers, the company said. They also range from cooking ingredients to non-perishable snacks and sweets.
“We’re committed to offering our clients as many products as we can,” Fernando Ramirez, Amazon Mexico’s senior product manager, said in a statement.
In the United States, Amazon has tackled online grocery sales through its $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods Market last year. It now offers two-hour delivery and lets shoppers pick up Amazon products from lockers at Whole Foods stores.
