Oban Digital: Focus on Mexico

Oban Digital: Focus on Mexico

The ‘Focus on...’ series is a range of articles based on ourglobal research from the Oban Digital Labs. Each reporthas a specific focus on cultural drivers and preferencesthat may affect web design and usability choices. Thismonth we look at the Mexican web landscape, to reveala range of fascinating insights that could leverage yourweb presence in this unique market.



• The official language in Mexico is Spanish

• Close to 90% of the population is Catholic

• According to official statistics, by 2013 about a third of the population had internetconnection at home. Furthermore, roughly 43.5% of the population (aged 6 years or more)are regular users of internet and this has consistently increased during the last decade

Demographics

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Internet Users in Mexico (%)

Figure 1: Percentage of internet users in Mexico (from the total population)


• E-commerce has rapidly increased in the last few years. The estimated YOY growth from2012 to 2013 was 42%, according to a report by the Internet Mexican Association (AMIPCI)

• The AMIPCI’s report shows that one of the most important periods for e-commerce inMexico is at the end of the year (November-December). This period coincides with Day of theDead, Catholic celebrations and New Year

E-commerce

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Products and Services (%)

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Figure 2: Types of products and services users obtain online


• The AMIPCI indicates that 37% of internet users have bought something through Internetas well

In Figure 2 we can see that some of the biggest sectors are transport (flights/coach)and music and films, followed by clothes, accessories, computers and software

• Regarding the consumers’ profile, the AMIPCI revealed that buyers prefer to pay onlineusing credit cards

In addition, online sales seem to benefit when free deliveries and discounts areoffered to consumers

More importantly, as way to transmit trust to the consumer, websites often showthe email of the company, have an https site and a contact phone number


• Personal data privacy and consumer trust are the principal challenges of e-commerce inMexico. Users who do not buy online have stated uncertainty or fear of purchasing online.This is due to concerns around personal details, card information and product or servicedelivery

• In addition, Mexico has one of the slowest internet connections of the 34 members of theOCDE – this also includes mobile broadband

Online growth issues


• There is significant scope for improving e-commerce websites in Mexico. Sites for smalland medium businesses tend to have a poor design, with outdated information and brokenlinks. Without doubt, there is a clear opportunity to improve services and call to the appealof users

Web design

Figure 3: A timber cutting business (left) and a glassware business.


• However, in the case of well-known and long established companies, websites tend toinclude lots of multimedia and graphics. A large proportion of the page is covered withoffers and colourful images

Although this design might seem appealing to the end user, it has some cleardrawbacks; since users' internet connection will be generally slow, graphics willtake a long time to download

In addition, multimedia elements (which tend to be on the centre of the page)are usually a source of distraction and may hinder a user’s search and selection ofproducts


Figure 4: Multimedia graphics in three well-known businesses in Mexico


• Educational sites, on the other hand, have minimal graphics, but present a largeamount of text to the user – which does not facilitate a user’s search for information.Moreover, images often present high power figures, large buildings and give emphasisto groups of people rather than individuals

Figure 5: A timber cutting business (left) and a glassware business


• According to Hofstede, Mexican society has a high hierarchical organisation and haspreference to avoid uncertainty.

•Websites with poor design will be less likely to be trusted (see Figure 3), whereaseducational or government sites which are perceived trustworthy will usually featureimages of people with high status

• When it comes to the use of colour on websites a study by Yokosawa et al. indicatesthat Mexican people do not have a preference for cool over warm colours. However,research did show that some individuals disliked dark yellow, but not dark orange

Documents

Oban Digital: Focus on Mexico