Why Amazon orders in Mexico need cash and the corner store

A view of the Amazon fulfillment center in Mexico City, Mexico, September 12, 2017. Picture taken September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

In Mexico, it turns out the key to online shopping is offline payments. 

In a nation where just about everyone prefers to pay cash, Amazon.com Inc and Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB are pushing a hybrid payment system to encourage more shoppers to go online. Amazon is letting people pay for goods ordered on its website at the corner convenience store, while Wal-Mart’s local unit and retail giant Grupo Elektra SAB have set up kiosks at megastores that work much the same way. Even MercadoLibre Inc, Latin America’s biggest online marketplace, has gotten in on the trend.