Cinco de Mayo marks Mexico’s victory against the French Empire in 1862 and is therefore an important cultural event in this Central American nation. Amidst the widespread celebrations, merchants operating in this part of the world could also discover a range of opportunities to further their business efforts. In this blog post, we identify ways that you can maximise this occasion and how to optimise your payment offerings for the Mexican market.
Products to sell
Cinco de Mayo is a time to party, and you could do a lot worse than selling Mexican alcohol. Margarita is a popular cocktail, as is Mexican beer. Selling food from the nation, such as nachos and tacos, is also wise – bonus points if it’s in the green, white and red of the country’s flag.
No fiesta is complete without entertainment. Colourful maracas will catch the eyes, while consumers will be likely to buy piñatas as they guarantee fun for all guests (and fortune for whoever delivers the breaking blow). Sombreros and guitars are other popular gift ideas at this time of the year, so the former at the least is worth selling on your site.
Localising your language settings
English proficiency in Mexico is behind other parts of Latin America, let alone the rest of the world. According to the EF English Proficiency Index, the country ranks ninth out of 17 countries in this region. The same organisation discovered that Mexico dropped from 18th in the world, for English proficiency, to 57th in 2018.
With the above in mind, optimising your website for Spanish speakers is a must-do. It’s also advisable that you hire Spanish-speaking support teams, while other recommendation
is to have social media pages in said language. You can start a completely new account for this, or simply make your current support accounts multilingual.
Optimising your payment offerings
Bank transfer and eWallets are two popular Alternative Payment Methods (APMs) in Mexico, with PPRO reporting that 28% of the payment split in this country belonging to these two collectively. Prepaid cards are also popular for online shopping. We covered such method in a blog post which featured in our ‘In Focus’ series. In that piece, we also showcased the long-term eCommerce opportunities for offering this service.
It might also be a wise idea to optimise for mobile payments in this market. According to eShopWorld, 25% of Mexicans use their smartphone to shop online. Total smartphone penetration stands at just under 46% too, according to Newzoo, meaning that it’s useful to optimise now and be prepared for the long run.
To summarise…
The first step to becoming a successful seller on Cinco de Mayo, as well as in Mexican eCommerce generally, is to offer your services in Spanish. Fewer people speak English than in Europe, meaning that they might not be able to understand the version of your website in this language. It’s also important to understand how consumers pay in this part of the world. Trust is an important factor and a lot of shoppers feel more comfortable paying in ways that don’t require them to store their details online. Cinco de Mayo equals fiesta time, so you’ll enjoy more success selling relevant food, drink and props.
At emerchantpay, our globalised APM offerings and payment gateway enable merchants to expand into multiple markets worldwide. To find out more, please contact us.