Mailamericas: Upping The Game In Cross-Border Delivery

Diversity is one word that best epitomizes Latin America, whether topographically or culturally! On the one hand, from the high Andes Mountains to the tropical rainforests of the Amazon Basin, the region is known for its picturesque landscapes. And on the other, it is home to various ethnicities, cultures, and, not to mention, captivating literature, music, and sports. While Latin America remains a centerpiece on the global map for all these facets, the past decade has witnessed it gaining prominence for another factor— its burgeoning potential for international e-commerce.

Today, as an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, Latin America is becoming one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in the world with a phenomenal 36.7 percent growth rate, amounting to $85 billion. Last year alone, amid the crisis, the region had more than 13 million people making online transactions for the first time, according to a report by Statista—a renowned data company.

"The time is now for Latin America, and the time is ripe for the international business community to take the advantage"

With such astounding growth, the region is swiftly becoming the market to watch for, attracting enterprises even from distant quarters to boost their revenue. The new vigor that Latin America is enjoying from businesses in the APAC countries is its perfect case in point.

However, given the e-commerce boom is quite a new phenomenon in Latin America, many such international businesses are facing a hard time charting the unknown terrains of e-commerce. It is thus impacting their last-mile deliveries and order fulfillment. Against this backdrop, a company that is empowering these global e-commerce firms in their delivery fulfillment with an enterprise-level delivery network and leading package tracking solution is MailAmericas. Leaning on its two decades of expertise in handling cross-border deliveries in Latin American countries, MailAmericas is playing a monumental role in enabling international companies to go neck and neck with domestic players during this e-commerce explosion. MailAmericas is currently aiding several e-commerce companies and retailers (including companies from the APAC market) to deliver more than three million international packages per month in Latin America, and the figure is expected to cross the five million mark by next year.

How It All Began…

MailAmericas’ competency in enhancing cross-border e-commerce operations today can be traced back to its early days. The company was founded during the turbulent period of the early 2000s that ravaged many Universal Postal Union (UPU) members in the international mail market. Due to the deregulation of the mail market, the Designated Postal Operators (DPO) within the UPU member countries were facing stiff competition from private consolidators for international mail shipments. Several private consolidators entered the UPU markets, taking the international mail volume away from the DPOs.

MailAmericas’ initial goal was to assist those DPOs in strengthening their capabilities in line with the private operators and recover their lost mail volume. “We helped the DPOs develop services to cater to high volumes of mails and provided them state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure to comply with their changing needs,” says Nicolas Tabanera, the commercial and customer services director of MailAmericas. Subsequently, the company coordinated the consolidation of the mail delivery network for all DPOs in its partner UPU member countries. In a few years, MailAmericas was in charge of consolidating international mail in over 20 countries in Latin America, 17 in Africa, 12 in South East Asia, and 10 in Eastern Europe. Working alongside the DPOs, MailAmericas also implemented a hassle-free mail delivery system in these countries while catering to the specific requirements of each nation.

Over time, with the eventual decline in printed material and subsequent rise in online shopping, MailAmericas pivoted its focus to the e-commerce sector. And hence, to help national and international e-commerce companies navigate the previously uncharted Latin American territory, today, MailAmericas—with the help of its partner DPOs—brings cutting-edge package tracking and information processing solutions and offers Alternative Delivery Solutions (ADS). To boost delivery volume, MailAmericas even incorporates private companies, including airlines, freight forwarders, third-party logistics firms, and last-mile service companies into its ADS network. This public-private synergistic network of DPOs and private players is at the core of MailAmericas’ success in the international e-commerce space—catering to a wide variety of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) delivery services.

These robust capabilities are also enabling MailAmericas to help its clients operate in the Latin American region without breaking a sweat when the whole logistics and delivery network around the world is being threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Owing to the upswing in e-commerce due to the pandemic, we adopted emergency measures like chartering flights and implementing special delivery protocols with our last-mile carriers,” mentions Tabanera. “We know how to turn any situation into an opportunity,” he further adds. And to keep complementing the e-commerce boom, MailAmericas is continuously incorporating more carriers into its already extensive network of delivery partners to help cross-border e-commerce businesses grow without compromising the quality of delivery.

These efforts have already started showing results! MailAmericas has been able to bring down the average delivery time for its clients from 30 - 40 days to 15 days. The company has also made its customer service available round-the-clock. At the same time, it started adding new services, such as returns management, to improve the overall service delivery.

On the whole, together with the advancements in the Latin American e-commerce ecosystem, like the improved payment gateways and protected purchases, MailAmericas’ ADS is now aiding the international sellers to reach Latin American buyers more seamlessly.

The Tangible Proof of Success

MailAmericas’ competencies can be highlighted best through a client success story. In 2018, a company faced issues with the timely delivery of packages in Mexico, so they onboarded MailAmericas. Working alongside the DPOs and private partners, MailAmericas completely transformed the delivery landscape for the client.

Firstly, MailAmericas developed a fully integrated electronic data interchange (EDI) system and implemented a new inbound process with the DPO and Customs Department. It allowed the client to exchange information in advance and accelerate the clearance process. MailAmericas also coordinated the flight schedules for operational efficiency and reduced the transit time by partnering with strategic airlines. And, that’s not all! MailAmericas added business intelligence (BI) tools to identify the location of post offices and last-mile carriers. It also established a local customer service to help in the whole process. The result? While the buyers had to previously wait for 60 days to receive their orders, they now have to wait for only 20 days. The client’s parcel volume almost tripled subsequently. “One of the strongest reasons for our success was working hand-in-hand with the client. The constant communication and end-to-end arrangement paved the way for achieving this outcome,” notes Tabanera.

Taking MailAmericas around the World

Tabanera cites that flexibility and adaptability are the two core traits enabling MailAmericas to bring about such success stories. “I have been experiencing different cultures while working with various companies across the world. As each country’s business requirement—from Latin America and Africa to Asia—is unique, a certain degree of flexibility and adaptation has to be there,” asserts Tabanera. This vast experience and comprehension have played a prominent role in enabling MailAmericas to adapt to the diverse business requirements of countries and regions wherein they operate.

Notably, today, the U.S. and China, along with some countries in Europe and APAC, remain the major strategic locations for the company. MailAmericas is looking forward to expanding its ADS network in these geographies, along with more countries in Africa and the Middle East. However, with the strategic partnerships that MailAmericas possesses in Asia, Tabanera believes that businesses from the APAC region, like Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, and South Korea, will have a competitive edge in Latin America. “The time is now for Latin America, and the time is ripe for the international business community to take the advantage,” concludes Tabanera.