By Eliane Portillo

4.4 million Mexicans spent $46.7 million pesos to buy on line in 2011. MercadoLibre.com certified 4,000 virtual stores.$46.7 million pesos of online purchases accounts for about 0.4% of the gross domestic product. The profitable deal is considered below the average of Latin America, and much lower as compared to 0.7% for the Chilean economy or almost 1% reached by Brazil, the country with the largest e-commerce in the region, according to Ernesto Piedras, of the Competitive Intelligence Unit, an independent telecommunications consultant.

Just a few but willing to spend. The e-shoppers or buyers online account for 12.5% of Internet users in the country, which means that 4.4 million Mexicans use this type of technology for the acquisition of goods and services. Among the most important purchases, plane tickets represent 69%, stressing the importance of e-commerce for the tourism sector.

To provide greater security to buyers on the Internet, the site eBay.com launched the first program of certification of electronic commerce vendors in the country.

Very in electronic accounts. 66% respondents are willing to use their cell phone as a wallet. Another example is that the number of people who prefer to use their mobile devices for browsing, see news and buy online has increased fivefold, according to data from the 5th Global Consumer and Convergence Survey: The Convergent Lifestyle, conducted by KPMG home business consultant.

Mercadolibre.com wants to offer certainty. That is why it wants to asses and to measure the quality of the service offered by large platform vendors to ensure the shopping experience and enhance the quality of e-commerce in Mexico.

It also wants to counter back the perception that e-commerce is unreliable. Mexico is lagging due to two factors: one is the fear of some consumers to share their personal data and be vulnerable to identity theft; the second, low banking for consumers.

The main online payment form is via credit card (70%), but these only represent 21% of credit cards in the market, while 57% are debit cards, 18 million of them are not enabled to purchase online, reported Carolina Forero, Director of eCommerce Visa Latin America and the Caribbean.

According to the Mexican Internet Association (Amipci), at the end of 2011, e-commerce in Mexico grew 28% compared to the previous year, representing $46.7 billion pesos.

The study of E-Commerce 2011 Amipci, conducted among 80 companies and over 4,700 buyers, revealed that among the main products and services sold online is tourism: 16% airplane tickets and ground transportation, 9% tickets of shows - cinema, theatre, concerts, 8% reservation of hotel and 7% devices.

To obtain the certification of MercadoLibre.com, a seller must obtain 85 points of an evaluation which takes into account more than 45 different aspects, such as invoice delivery, provision of guarantee and the friendly treatment for customers. In the first months of program test already had certified more than 4,000 suppliers in Latin America.

According to KPMG, 66% of consumers in America are more willing to buy CD’s, video players, books and online video games rather than in a shop; 67% in the Asia-Pacific region and 55% in Europe. While in Mexico the proportion of that concept is 23% and the most representative figure for shopping online is 40%, especially purchases of flights and holidays.

When asked in Mexico, in whom they relied for their payment information, 47% of consumers referred to its financial services institutions; 40% relied on secure payment sites (PayPal); 7% in retailers and 3% in internet service providers (ISPs).