Amazon Prime launches in Mexico

Amazon announced this afternoon that its annual membership program, Amazon Prime, is now available in Mexico. The service will offer unlimited free shipping on over 20 million items for the price of 449 pesos ($23) for the first year, before rising to the standard price of 899 pesos ($46) the following year.

The move comes less than two years after Amazon launched full operations in the country, through Amazon.com.mx. The Spanish-language version of the site offers millions of items across categories like consumer electronics, kitchen and home items, sports equipment, tools, baby, health and personal care products, jewelry, music, books, movies, software and more.

The company also offers its Fulfillment by Amazon service in Mexico.

The Mexican version of Amazon Prime isn’t as fully featured as its U.S. counterpart. Instead, it largely focuses on offering free shipping, including, in some areas, 1-day or same-day deliveries, along with access to Amazon Prime Video.

It’s standard for Amazon to launch Prime in new countries with only fast, free shipping. But Mexico represents the first time the retailer has launched with both Prime shipping and Prime Video on day one.

Mexico also has the largest Prime eligible selection on day one, and it is the first Latin American launch for Prime as well.

In Mexico City, Guadalajara, Puebla and Querétaro, customers can request free 1-day shipping on a select number of qualifying products. In the Mexico City metro area, same-day delivery on thousands of products is also available.

There are also discounts and free shipping without a minimum purchase on items from Amazon EE.UU, with orders arriving in 6 to 9 days after shipping.

Meanwhile, the Amazon Prime video service will feature “hundreds of popular movies and TV shows,” says Amazon, including its original series “Mozart in the Jungle,” which features Mexican actor Gael García Bernal. Other Amazon shows like “Goliath,” “Transparent,” “The Man in the High Castle,” “The Grand Tour, “Sneaky Pete,” “Bosch,” and others will also join, followed by “American Gods,” “Patriot,” and “The Tick” which arrive later in the year.

Prime Video will compete with Netflix in the region, where the latter service has roughly 1.2 million subscribers, according to an estimate from Statista, as reported by FT. Their report also noted the fortunate timing of Amazon Prime’s Mexican launch: the Mexican peso recently regained some ground following its drop after Trump’s win, and consumer confidence in February was up a bit, it said. (An 11.1% month-on-month, seasonally adjusted increase in February, per Goldman Sachs.)

Mexico is Latin America’s second-largest economy, behind Brazil, with online sales expected to reach $6 billion by 2018, up from $2.9 billion in 2015.

Amazon is hardly the only e-commerce retailer fighting for attention in Mexico, nor is it the only major one. In December, Walmart announced it would invest $1.3 billion in logistics improvements in Mexico, including building new distribution centers—for both its e-commerce business ass well as its physical stores.