The missing growth strategy is Latin America. A MercadoLibre and Endeavor report found ecommerce there growing 1.5 times the global average, with most purchases made on smartphones and demand centered on Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina. Brands that have plateaued in the US should enter one anchor market with a mobile-first checkout and get landed cost right.
Key takeaways
- A US plateau is a strategy problem: when the demand pool stops expanding, more effort stops producing more growth.
- Latin American ecommerce is growing 1.5 times the global average, according to a MercadoLibre and Endeavor report.
- Most LatAm purchases happen on a phone, so load speed, local mobile payments, and a one-thumb checkout decide conversion.
- Anchor in one market, usually Brazil or Mexico, prove the model, then expand. Argentina carries more currency and pricing complexity.
- Treat it as a landed-cost and localization project, with installment payments and duty-aware pricing, not a translation job.
If your best-performing ecommerce growth strategy has quietly stopped producing new growth, the problem may not be your execution. It may be your map. A Jan 27, 2026 MercadoLibre and Endeavor report showed Latin American ecommerce growing 1.5x the global average, with 85% of purchases made via smartphone and demand concentrated in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina (PYMNTS, Jan 27, 2026). While US and EU brands fight for flat demand, an entire region is compounding faster, and it is almost entirely mobile. For brands that have plateaued at home, that is the growth lever hiding in plain sight.
Why has my ecommerce growth plateaued in the US?
When a market matures, incremental effort stops producing incremental growth. You can improve creative, tighten your funnel, and squeeze another point of conversion, and still watch the top line flatten, because the underlying demand pool is not expanding. That is the state a lot of $1M to $50M brands are in right now in the US and EU.
The MercadoLibre and Endeavor report reframes the question (PYMNTS, Jan 27, 2026). Instead of asking how to extract more from a saturated market, ask where the demand curve is still steep. Latin America growing 1.5x the global average is not a rounding error. It is the difference between fighting for share and riding a rising market.
What do "1.5x faster" and "85% mobile" mean for my ecommerce growth tactics?
Two numbers should reshape your ecommerce growth tactics. First, 1.5x the global average means the same product, positioned for the right LatAm buyer, meets less friction on the demand side than it does at home. Second, 85% of purchases via smartphone means the mobile experience is not a channel, it is the store (PYMNTS, Jan 27, 2026).
That changes what "good" looks like. A desktop-first checkout that merely renders on mobile is not enough. In a market where 85% of purchases happen on a phone, load speed, mobile payment methods, and a checkout designed for one thumb are the growth tactics, not nice-to-haves.
Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina entry, in that order
Demand is concentrated in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina (PYMNTS, Jan 27, 2026), so a focused entry beats a scattered one. Brazil is the largest single opportunity and often the anchor market. Mexico offers proximity to US logistics and strong marketplace infrastructure. Argentina is real demand but carries more currency and pricing complexity, so it usually sequences after the first two. Pick one anchor, prove the model, then expand. A phased entry keeps landed cost and localization manageable instead of spreading a thin effort across three countries at once.
Landed cost and localization are the real work
The mistake is treating LatAm expansion as a translation project. It is a landed-cost and localization project. That means local payment methods, including installment options that dominate the region, pricing that accounts for duties and freight so your margin survives, and content localized for each country rather than a single Spanish or Portuguese cut. Get landed cost wrong and a 1.5x-faster market still loses you money. Get it right and you unlock growth your home market simply cannot give you.
How do I fit Latin America into my ecommerce growth strategy?
The brands that win here do not bolt LatAm on as an experiment. They treat it as part of a single ecommerce growth strategy that connects acquisition, checkout, and retention across markets, the way the best multichannel ecommerce agencies run one plan across every channel. That includes omnichannel loyalty that recognizes a customer whether they buy on marketplace or on your own store, so the mobile-first buyer you win in Brazil or Mexico comes back rather than churning after one order.
This is where a dtc ecommerce agency earns its keep: modeling landed cost per country, choosing the anchor market, building a mobile-first checkout for an 85%-smartphone audience, and keeping the whole thing under one plan. A growth retainer means the LatAm push is not a disconnected pilot, it is the same team, the same data, and the same standard you already run in the US, pointed at the market that is still growing.
The bottom line
The US is plateauing. Latin America is growing 1.5x faster, and 85% of purchases happen on a phone (PYMNTS, Jan 27, 2026). For brands that have topped out at home, LatAm is a mobile-first growth lever, if you treat it as a landed-cost and localization program focused on Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina rather than a translation exercise. Move deliberately, anchor in one market, and build for the phone.