Chile E-commerce Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends & Forecasts (2025 - 2030)

Chile E-commerce Market Trends and Insights

Rapid Expansion of WebPay-Enabled Digital Wallets

WebPay is now integrated across all major marketplaces, eliminating legacy payment friction and lifting merchant conversion rates by double digits. MACH surpassed 4 million users in 2025 with 95% satisfaction, reflecting deepening financial inclusion amid 87% bank-account penetration.^{[2]Banco de Chile, “MACH User Milestones 2025,” bci.cl} Chile also became South America’s fourth-largest real-time payments market, processing 1.43 billion electronic transfers in 2024, which reduces cash handling and accelerates settlement cycles. As digital wallets layer loyalty, micro-credit and buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) functions onto their rails, platform stickiness rises and average order values climb. These network effects reinforce the Chile e-commerce market’s growth momentum and lower acquisition costs for both local and cross-border sellers.

Omnichannel Push by Chile’s Top-4 Brick-and-Mortar Retailers

Retail incumbents are converting stores into fulfillment nodes that shorten last-mile distances, raise same-day delivery coverage and boost click-and-collect traffic. Falabella’s Fulfillment By Falabella now supports 18% of marketplace sales with 90% post-purchase satisfaction.^{[3]Falabella S.A., “Fulfillment By Falabella Fact Sheet,” falabella.com} Cencosud’s AI-enabled recommendation engine lifted online basket size by 12% in 2024, illustrating how data-driven personalization increases lifetime value. These initiatives also monetize idle store inventory and leverage established loyalty programs, creating high entry barriers for foreign pure-plays. Intensifying omnichannel competition forces marketplaces to differentiate through proprietary logistics, fintech add-ons and exclusive brand partnerships, thereby raising overall service standards in the Chile e-commerce market.

5G Roll-out Boosting Mobile Checkout Speeds

Telecom operators have earmarked USD 3 billion for 5G spectrum, fiber backhaul and edge nodes, promising latency below 20 milliseconds. Faster mobile sessions cut cart abandonment, especially for impulse buyers and flash-sale events. The Asia–South America Digital Gateway cable strengthens international bandwidth and lowers packet loss, encouraging cross-border purchases of high-value electronics and fashion. As video-rich product pages and AR try-on tools become mainstream, 5G enables fluid rendering on mid-range phones, driving up session duration and conversion.

Government “Chile Digital 2035” Fiber-Backhaul Investments

The initiative extends fiber spines into underserved communes, aiming to halve the rural connectivity gap by 2028. A newly established National Cybersecurity Agency coordinates threat-intel sharing, raising consumer confidence in storing card credentials online. Subsidized digital-skills programs help 55,000 SMEs adopt storefront plug-ins and cross-list on multiple marketplaces. Over the long haul, these measures are expected to unlock new seller cohorts and give the Chile e-commerce market an inclusive growth profile that balances urban scale with provincial reach.

High Inter-change & Gateway Fees Concentrated in Two PSPs

A duopoly in card acquiring keeps interchange fees around 1.9% per transaction, squeezing SME margins. Because the same processors also dominate wallet top-ups, fee opacity persists, limiting the scope for dynamic discounting and installment promotions. Draft Fintech Law decrees open-banking interfaces, yet compliance grace periods delay meaningful competition.

Rural Delivery Costs in Patagonia & Extreme North

Sparse road networks, weather volatility and low stop densities inflate per-parcel costs by 40% versus Santiago. Government transport subsidies of USD 87 million focus on passengers, not freight, so e-commerce logistics remain self-funded. Consequently, bulky categories such as home appliances see slower adoption, constraining total addressable demand even as fiber connectivity improves.

Segment Analysis

By Business Model: B2B Platforms Accelerate Digital Transformation

The B2B slice of the Chile e-commerce market size is forecast to advance at a 14.5% CAGR to 2030, outpacing the consumer side that already controls 88% of 2024 sales. Procurement digitization mandates, cross-dock inventory hubs and embedded trade-credit tools attract manufacturers and distributors seeking cycle-time reductions. Large buyers favor closed-loop portals, but SME exporters migrate to public marketplaces to tap regional demand under the EU-Chile Interim Agreement.  

The dominant B2C arena remains highly competitive, yet logistics density and gig-worker networks sustain profitable unit economics. Governance reforms under Law No 21.431 elevate delivery-partner costs, but platforms offset with dynamic routing and peak-pricing levers. Cross-border entrants accept lower margins to gain share, prompting domestic leaders to enhance loyalty perks and in-app financial products. These counter-moves maintain the Chile e-commerce market’s robust engagement metrics.

By Device Type: Mobile Commerce Dominance Reshapes User Experience

Smartphones and tablets represented 66% of 2024 gross merchandise value, and mobile revenue is growing at a 10.7% CAGR. This share gives handheld devices the largest Chile e-commerce market size contribution within hardware form factors. Desktop remains relevant for big-ticket B2B orders, but traffic shows a down-trend as responsive design, biometric login and one-click wallets simplify checkouts on smaller screens.  

App-first players such as MercadoLibre record 72% active users transacting solely via mobile, reflecting UI investments like visual search and chat-based customer support. The 5G network roll-out accelerates adoption of video-rich, AR-enhanced browsing, further tipping the balance toward mobile interfaces. Kiosks and smart-TV commerce are experimental today, yet edge-device proliferation signals future multichannel contention.

By Payment Method: Digital Wallet Revolution Challenges Card Dominance

Cards held 50% of transaction value in 2024, but digital wallets are rising at a 16.6% CAGR. Wallets already represent 34% of the Chile e-commerce market size for payments, anchored by WebPay’s ubiquitous QR acceptance and MACH’s zero-fee peer transfers. This momentum shortens settlement cycles and curbs charge-backs.  

BNPL remains marginal because credit scoring frameworks and interest-rate spreads deter usage. However, real-time payments infrastructure enables deferred debit products, and regulators are drafting disclosure rules to protect consumers. As interoperability APIs open, niche fintechs can overlay loyalty schemes onto wallet rails, eroding card preference and compressing interchange.

Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase

By Product Category: Food & Beverage E-commerce Leads Growth Acceleration

Food and beverage is on track to log a 14.7% CAGR through 2030, the fastest among product lines. Aggregators like Rappi and Cornershop extend cold-chain coverage and micro-fulfillment nodes within supermarket premises, shrinking delivery windows to under 60 minutes. Consumer electronics retained a 22% revenue share in 2024, the largest Chile e-commerce market share at category level, buoyed by cross-border price arbitrage and brand launches timed around Cyber events.  

Fashion, boosted by fast-fashion imports, draws shoppers with predictive sizing tools, while furniture growth is capped by volumetric shipping costs. Seasonal tourism in Patagonia supplements demand for sports gear and travel accessories yet remains volatile.

Geography Analysis

Metropolitan Santiago anchors over 54% of national GMV owing to dense population, same-day delivery coverage and the presence of key fulfillment centers along Route 68. Valparaíso and Concepción follow, leveraging port connectivity and university-driven consumer bases. Together, these corridors amplify the Chile e-commerce market’s urban concentration and support parcel drop densities exceeding 3,000 deliveries per sq km.  

Northern macro-zones tied to copper mining display above-average disposable income, spurring luxury and electronics uptake. Nonetheless, logistical lead times reach 4-5 days, tempering impulse-buy categories. Patagonia and the Araucanía region illustrate the rural gap: fiber projects under Chile Digital 2035 broaden access, but road distance and weather idiosyncrasies elongate last-mile costs, limiting retailer promotional breadth.  

Cross-border flows are increasingly routed through bonded warehouses in the Santiago Free Zone, enabling Chinese marketplaces to promise customs-cleared 7-day delivery. The EU-Chile Interim Agreement eliminates tariffs on 99.9% of EU imports, widening product assortments in cosmetics and premium food lines. Concurrently, January 2025 VAT reforms abolish the de minimis rule, obliging all inbound parcels to pay tax and thus narrowing the landed-cost advantage previously enjoyed by ultra-low-value shipments.