Klaviyo and Latin America's E-commerce Landscape with Mateo Velayos - 101

Discover the secrets to thriving in Latin American e-commerce as Brandon Amoroso sits down with Mateo Velayos, Klaviyo's seasoned account focusing on Latin America. From navigating cultural nuances to leveraging strategic partnerships, explore the dynamic landscape of Latin American markets and uncover invaluable insights to fuel your business growth. Don't miss out—tune in now!

Timestamps
🌎 Introduction to Latin American e-commerce market (00:00:00)
🛒 Differences between US and Latin American e-commerce markets (00:02:26)
💼 Sales perspectives and buyer behavior in Latin America (00:03:58)
🤝 Importance of relationship-building in Latin American market (00:05:27)
🔧 Existing tools and technologies in Latin American market (00:06:27)
📈 Strategies for enterprise and mid-market targeting (00:07:38)
🚀 Challenges in adopting new technologies (00:14:18)
💰 Challenges in Latin American Markets (00:18:57)
💵 Price Sensitivity and Value Proposition (00:21:04)
🤝 Focus on Partnerships (00:23:27)
⚖️ Scaling and Division of Responsibilities (00:24:52)
🌱 Ecosystem Development and Emerging Markets (00:25:31)
🗣️ Overcoming Language Barriers (00:29:13)

Mateo Velayos
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mateo-velayos/
Klaviyo - https://www.klaviyo.com/

Brandon Amoroso:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonamoroso/
Web - https://brandonamoroso.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bamoroso11/
X - https://twitter.com/AmorosoBrandon
Scalis.ai - https://scalis.ai/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

I'm Brandon Amoroso and this is the D2Z Podcast building and growing your business from a Gen Z perspective. Hey everyone, Welcome to the D2Z Podcast, a podcast about using the Gen Z mindset to grow your business. I'm Gen Z entrepreneur Brandon Amoroso, founder and president of Retention as a Service Agency Electric, as well as a co-founder of Scaless, and today I'm talking with Mateo, who's an account executive for Klaviyo in LATAM, which correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you're one of the only account executives specifically designated for LATAM and Klaviyo, and Mateo also lives just a few minutes away from me here in Miami, so really excited to have you on the show.

Speaker 2: 0:48

Thanks for having me, brandon, and I'll introduce myself just now. But, like you said right now, yeah, the only account executive working at Klaviyo focused on Latin America. It's a new focus for sure, something that's still being built out, but really excited to talk about a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 1:10

It feels like in general for the Shopify ecosystem that Latin America, or at least that market, is relatively new, and it's not just Latam either. There's some other regions where there's really a different set of tools and technologies that are typically being used by merchants.

Speaker 2: 1:32

Yeah, we've been working, for sure, alongside Shopify and some other partners, but the region is experiencing more growth lately than it was before, so it's for sure something that's going to be really, really relevant. It was a region that had a mentality that was more focused on kind of working with custom and in-house built systems and processes, and now, with Shopify moving down there and the whole app ecosystem as well, we're trying to change that and have things work together in a team as part of this ecosystem, instead of just kind of working the old way, which is a lot more complicated and actually slow, but little by little we're making these people make the investments to start changing to a more modern world.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Well, what are some of the main differences between let's just go with the US market and the Latin market when it comes to e-com and tech stack?

Speaker 2: 2:40

I feel like the biggest thing is that Shopify wasn't seen, I guess, as like an enterprise player down there either yet too. So there's very old kind of like legacy systems. So Magento is pretty big, Custom developments are also really big too, and e-commerce wasn't as developed too has developed too is just because the countries itself don't have the infrastructure for the majority of their population to be able to benefit from e-commerce. Other countries like Chile, Argentina and Mexico are very developed, same as Colombia, but other ones in the region are starting to catch up by having more access to financial tools and then, little by little, also just being able to give people more infrastructure in terms of internet network, these things that give you the buying capacity to then obviously start developing much more larger e-commerce motions for all these businesses.

Speaker 1: 3:47

And from like a sales perspective, what's the main differences between selling to a US-based brand versus a Latin brand?

Speaker 2: 3:58

Yeah, that's a completely different type of buyer. People in Latin America are very relationship oriented, I mean. Something very interesting too also is the currency exchange rate. So at Klibio we're also starting to figure that out. Same with Europe and APAC too. But the plans and prices that people have to pay in the U? S compared to what Latin Americans have to pay for them, are much higher. So, um, that's something that has been, for sure, interesting to navigate. But, um, the biggest success, uh driver in the region is being able to obviously validate and have a great tool Klaviyo is great at that makes it easy. But the relationships that you're actually going to be helping them, you're going to be part of the experience that they have with the company is going to be very important, because they don't just flip out their wallet and make payments that easy. So that's something that's going to actually get the sale done. So I have to feel a lot more closer to them than just kind of like I'm one and done with them.

Speaker 1: 5:08

Got it. Yeah, that that reminds me of, uh, you know, having to sort of wear multiple hats and help out beyond just, you know, getting them to sign on the dotted line, and they sort of expect that you know they're going to be able to work with you on the actual platform itself.

Speaker 2: 5:28

Yeah, I mean it's, it's fun too, it's it's it's like a it's a little dynamic role too. It's very, very scrappy in some senses, just because maybe we might not have the biggest support for Spanish speakers at the moment. But yeah, I'm each, I'm making sure I'm involved in many of the processes to help them feel very, um, you know that they're sure that the investment that they're doing is going to be beneficial from their business, not just because of the tool that they're having, but we're actually also invested in growing in the region and being part of their ecosystem too. So that's something that's been fun, you know we have. We have specific events planned in the near future in different markets too that'll help, um, you know, cement that a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 6:11

Are you um running into existing like tools and technologies within the um within that market, or really is it primarily a lot of custom um that you run into? I mean?

Speaker 2: 6:28

you know, you, you do have like competitors. Are you talking competitors directly of Klaviyo or? Okay, yeah, there, there is for sure. Um, there, there are some some big players too, but um, not nobody has, you know, a very dominant market share of the region. You run into MailChimp always. Mailchimp is huge in South America and can even be viewed as a very sophisticated tool in the region, or was so little by little that's kind of changing. Multiple things were used to accomplish like the actions that you can get into Klaviyo, so the very manual processes were also being used. So it wasn't very efficient at all, but I would say, like Sendinblue, MailChimp are kind of like the biggest ones for a moment. Then there's like a few other Spanish ones or Chilean ones too that are relevant, but nobody that's been actually very big and then also a big player is in.

Speaker 2: 7:32

Brazil RD Station. So those are kind of some of the ones that you've been running, I've been running into down there.

Speaker 1: 7:38

Got it. Yeah, that's interesting how sort of different players can end up in different markets. But the thing that's shocking to me is, you know, what point does a platform go from being sophisticated and then like how, like the I guess sort of the downfall or the um, I'm trying to think of a good way to explain it. But you know, mailchimp was sort of the solution until it, until it wasn't. And it's fascinating to me like when did that happen? How did that happen? You know, how can other businesses prevent that from happening?

Speaker 1: 8:14

And because you don't see that with all companies, some have staying power and like, if you look at a HubSpot and B2B, you know they haven't really gone anywhere. Or to use Shopify as an example, but MailChimp has really been dragged through the mud here over the past couple of years, especially in the US, and it just feels like, you know, kind of like the alcohol market, it lags behind in terms of technology adoption. It lags behind in terms of technology adoption. It feels like that's kind of similar to LATAM market and some other international markets, in that they just lag behind some of the technology adoption. So I feel like LATAM is like the US three, four or five years ago, so to speak.

Speaker 2: 9:00

Much more man.

Speaker 2: 9:01

But, yeah, you're right. No, you're right, it's, it's, it's, yeah, it's, it's true, it's. It's funny to see how sometimes you know you, you go into these markets like you were talking about the alcohol industry and you talk to customers and you find out that they're much less aware of what's going on, maybe in the industry because of what wasn't made available to them or wasn't like explicitly marketed or or partnered with at one point. You know that that starts adopting this like mentality that there are other things that are intuitive and easy and simple to use but are complex and can accomplish complex things at the same time. So that's something that that's growing, for sure, you know.

Speaker 2: 9:41

So I've been, I've been talking to a lot of people, a lot and, uh, I always, you know like, hey, I know I'm, I'm the bridge to help you obviously see the benefit and and having you kind of like, or also our company, understand that our prices and the way that we have to act and work with the region has to change at one point, just because you know there has to be adaptability to to those customers. But, um, I'm also helping a lot of these customers to understand that they have to change the mentality of kind of of thinking to not fix something if it's not broken, and then also that if you view everything as just like a cost, you're never going to make an investment that's going to help you grow your business, at least least at a, at a faster pace or at a larger scale. So that's, um, that's something that's been helping me win some deals, for sure.

Speaker 1: 10:32

How, how important is it? Do you think to be like, uh, you know, within some sort of proximity to to them in terms of, like you know, you mentioned some of these upcoming events? Is that going to be like a huge unlock? Is that just going to be like a small unlock? Because it feels like that's a market that you know you would need to get face-to-face time.

Speaker 2: 11:00

Yeah, yeah for sure. I've been talking to a lot of partners too, since I do cover a lot of the agency relationships too with agencies in Latin America, and most of them get super excited when they can speak to somebody in Spanish. Now they're super excited about partnering, wanting to see each other in person, collaborate on specific events or activations for customers or large enterprises in the region too. So going hand-in-hand with agencies, Shopify and other tech partners there, it is proving to give a better sense of who the players are that are interested or invested in kind of making this grow for the region. So we're doing it obviously step-by-step, but last year we did with Shopify and a few other local tools in the region, as well as some partners of ours, some enterprise meetups.

Speaker 2: 11:54

So Panama we did last year and that was pretty good and it was great to actually see the reactions of people of like how we presented Klaviyo and how we presented Shopify, and then also Tilope was also another app that was focusing on checkout experiences, like how all of our stories were put together and helped kind of create this one experience for the customer. So people were very excited to see that, especially, you know, individual contributors or directors that were in charge of kind of new projects or digitalization inside the companies. They were like oh, this was actually super relevant and showed how easy it is to create these experiences that seem complicated with only one tool, or you need multiple things in place to be able to accomplish them. So that was super exciting. And then I think this year we're also going to be working with Shopify in the next few months to get some more of those Latin American enterprise meetups, as well as a growth conference with one of our good partners, ED Digital in Puerto Rico.

Speaker 1: 13:02

So those things for sure is ED Digital in Puerto Rico. So those things for sure. Do the bands for enterprise and mid-market. Do they change? Are they lower, Are they?

Speaker 2: 13:14

They're probably a bit lower, but it also depends on how you categorize them in terms of how you're going into the market too, just to be, I guess, maybe aligned with what you can serve to as well, based on the resources that you have as a company. At least on our end in Klaviyo, we try and view enterprise as anything above, I would say, $1 million GMV. For other tools it might be a little bit less, maybe between $500K and $1 million, but it's much lower than it is in the US for sure.

Speaker 1: 13:52

Yeah, definitely the sort of unified solution approach or you go with multiple partners.

Speaker 1: 13:58

I think is critical because, as we've entered into markets that are lagging behind from a technology standpoint, what we would think of as a benefit the modularity of the systems, the ability to plug and play a bunch of different solutions they actually sort of get freaked out by it that they're going to have to go from like one solution or a couple that you know we look at them and they're like, wow, like you know, those suck, but for them it's just like oh, I only have like a couple things I have to deal with to, oh, now you're on shopify, you have, like this ferrari and it has, you know, 100 different gadgets that you have to plug into it and that can be pretty overwhelming for them.

Speaker 1: 14:43

So one of the things that we've had to do on our end is create those sort of combined package offerings where you're very prescriptive in terms of how the new solution is going to work together and that you know taking what they already have and showing them how it will translate into this new environment, because they get very focused on like at least maintaining or ensuring that they're still going to have. You know some of the similar, some similar processes and operations that they currently do.

Speaker 2: 15:16

Yeah, is that? Has that been like your toughest or your biggest challenge, I guess, when helping or getting customers adopt new technologies?

Speaker 1: 15:25

Yeah, I don't know what it's like in LATAM, but within the alcohol vertical, a lot of the technology and tools have been built specifically for alcohol that they're using. And so, you know, maybe 10 years ago that made sense, but today it really doesn't, as platforms like Shopify now can support alcohol. But there is a mindset, that sort of lingers, that you know everything needs to be built specifically for me, everything needs to be special for me because of the nature of the industry. I'm not sure whether or not that's something that you run into.

Speaker 2: 16:02

I mean.

Speaker 2: 16:02

Something interesting that I've been seeing a lot is that there's a lot of different type of payment options in Latin America.

Speaker 2: 16:07

So you know, it's more about like, okay, we can accomplish all what we need to, and then, when we get to the part, when we start talking about the strategy and how maybe we start impacting maybe their customers' experiences, not just in a digital way, but also in an omni-channel kind of experience, by just plugging into some other data sources, we find out that a transaction for them is not as simple as it is for somebody in the US, where you just swipe your credit card and have them pay Over.

Speaker 2: 16:39

There. It's basically you can place orders but then you can go fulfill payments like gas stations or corner stores or through some sort of credit to. It's just like a lot of different types of ways to give you the opportunity to get that purchase from people that might not have the resources or the infrastructure to purchase it in one go, purchase from people that might not have the resources or the infrastructure to purchase it in one go. So having those things be part of also our platform is something that I'm navigating a lot with customers kind of understanding how to get that data in and making sure that we're using it in a way that we're not actually creating an experience for somebody that maybe hasn't finished purchasing a product because they have three more days to be able to pay it when they go to the corner store.

Speaker 2: 17:23

Maybe they don't ever pay it, you know. So it's it's kind of like. It's kind of fun to navigate and understand some of these new buying experiences that these customers have and helping the sellers or the businesses also give them relevant experiences that will help them ultimately increase their conversions, you know, and have these people become clients and create lasting relationships. But yeah, it's, it's. It's just like a whole different work around over there.

Speaker 1: 17:53

Yeah, that's something that you know you'd never run into here. What's it been like? I guess educating the rest of the team around the nuances within that market and then also getting buy-in for the opportunity that that market presents, because when you were at Akendo you weren't selling specifically to Latam, were you?

Speaker 2: 18:20

No, no, great question. And yeah, sorry I didn didn't introduce give more of my background. But yeah, I started in in e-commerce. I moved from uh from lima, peru, uh, originally in 2017 to miami, um. I finished college here in fiu um and then I broke into e-commerce by getting a sales job at Okendo. I was a BDR there for almost two years and then I was focusing on the whole world there because we were kind of starting. Okendo was much smaller than what Klaviyo is right now. We had a lean team, so we had the whole world, but I still like to focus on Latin America.

Speaker 2: 19:06

When I went to Klaviyo afterwards, focusing only on the Latin American role for sure was very interesting, helping a lot of my colleagues and higher-ups, educating them with the intel I can collect on the region. But yeah, it's just a very different motion of selling, based on more, like I said, relationship building than maybe transactional here, which isn't bad. It's just a different type of culture. I guess that's fostered around the sale and A lot of them are aware, for sure, and they know some of the challenges that I face or the company faces because of, maybe, the difference in culture and communities. But it's good, I'm feeding on the ground. I'm learning a lot about it and I'm relaying it back to the team Everything from partnerships relationships to specific customer relationships, or then different blockers in each country based on the different like legal systems that they have in terms of taxes or adoption of international technologies.

Speaker 2: 20:20

For example, like in peru, they charge they charge you 30% taxes on the profits that you get from using an international tool that doesn't have a localized office in the country. So those are some of the things that, like when I try and send to Peru, they're like yo, I'm going to have to pay 30% more taxes, even though I'm paying in dollars, even though I'm paying in dollars.

Speaker 2: 20:44

So it's kind of hard to get them to like sign if it's, if we don't give them, like, any incentive or at some, at some point, you know, adopt things a little bit more to like their, their standards or regions.

Speaker 1: 20:57

So you're selling in the sort of out of the box Klaviyo US pricing.

Speaker 2: 21:04

Yeah, I mean it's been great in giving back great results to the customers which, at the end of the day, my persistence and my being there kind of keeps that patience going until they start seeing them. So that's great. But yeah, sometimes the US dollars are hefty for them. You've been in South America recently, you know the benefit. S dollars are hefty for them, you know. You've been in South America recently, you know the benefit.

Speaker 1: 21:29

Yes, yes, I miss being there, especially when I'm in Miami now and I can go to a coffee shop and spend literally like $9 for a single coffee versus like 50 cents. It's just wild. No, I'm assuming that a lot of the solutions that they're using now too, are pretty cheap, like most of the alcohol, specific solutions aren't very expensive, and so we run into that a lot as well. I'm gonna have to pay triple for this type of conversation and that, like, can really just freak them out, and then the conversation sort of gets derailed because you can't even really get into the value of the product, because they're just not listening.

Speaker 2: 22:18

Yeah, that's something I've educated my colleagues on for sure, because it's like, hey, you know, put the values there. We've talked about this, we've done an, an analysis. It's like, yeah, but they just see cost. But it's funny. That's why I told you, I've been helping people kind of understand that. Um, apart from me obviously being the bridge and helping them get to the point where we're going to be giving them something for the region and just like showing them that we are invested and we're going, in a way, in a direction that's going to take us that way.

Speaker 2: 22:53

Um, that they can also see everything as a cost and it's something that I've seen across different markets and how that mentality shift changes helps them kind of ultimately grow their business and the people that can withstand, I guess, like the investments and be patient with it will will see the benefits in the long term of kind of being a little bit more lean and efficient and just agilizing their whole process around technology and e-commerce and you know, powering digital smarter relationships with their customers.

Speaker 1: 23:34

What are you most excited about?

Speaker 2: 23:34

you know for this year. Within you know your current role at Klaviyo. I'm starting to be more excited because we're partnering. We're being a little bit more focused on agency and tech partner relationships. You know, last year was, for sure, one full of investigation and trial and error too. So, based off of that and talking to some new people in, the region that are also excited into breaking into the region.

Speaker 2: 24:03

I've already built some good relationships with, you know, partners at Nosto Shopify, like I said, agencies across the South America that have already started to flourish into kind of like co-marketing opportunities or sponsorship opportunities. So I think kind of just like investing a little bit more in that will help drive a little bit more pipeline in business as a result just of being more present too. So that's something I'm really focused on. For sure, eventually getting somebody else maybe to the team too this year to help me with that side of maybe partnerships or post-sale experience is something I'm really looking forward to.

Speaker 1: 24:52

I like wearing multiple hats, but at some points I want to wear two. You can only wear multiple hats for so long. If you really want to scale, you're obviously going to have to divide and conquer a bit. That makes sense. I think it'll be fascinating to see how the ecosystem continues to branch out into emerging markets, because there's a few others besides LATAM that I've heard from other tech companies, as well as Shopify, that they're eyeing, and some that are actually more, I would say, evolved from a technology and infrastructure standpoint. So that's not really what's holding it back, it's more so just one tool or maybe two within that particular category just dominate that particular market, and so that'll be interesting to see what happens there.

Speaker 1: 25:43

I know, like in APAC, there's a lot of solutions that you know I couldn't even name them. But, um, when it comes to, like commerce or you know, email marketing, for example, there are players that you know got there first, and so if you're the only solution that's selling within that that market, you're obviously going to take a lion's share of that market. You're obviously going to take a lion's share of of that market share, and so now these other tools are sort of coming on on the heels of it. But what does the agency and tech partner ecosystem look like down there? Is it us-based agencies that have expanded down there, or is it, you know, grassroots companies?

Speaker 2: 26:24

It's so in terms of like agency. There are large and a lot of agencies that do great work in Latin America and I'm sure a lot of them work with great US brands too, since people, for sure, outsource. So a big focus of a lot of agencies that are cemented. There are to work with international markets, not just the Latin American market, because of the buying power cemented. There are to work with, like international markets, not just kind of the latin american market, because of the buying power, but there are some players and some of those who are invested in working, you know, with the largest businesses in the region. Now that we're kind of more involved shopify as well, and some other tech partners they're a little bit more excited and willing to put more resources into, kind of like, you know, developing this ecosystem in the region, instead of just them looking outwards to see what they can get. Um, every, every country has their, their own agency, I would say. So there are people that are focused, for sure, on email marketing, people that are very dev oriented as well, and then you know, you know there's great Shopify plus experts and partners down there too. So that makes it, that makes it good to start partnering, because I've already got an influx of people that are Shopify plus experts or partners that would love to kind of start offering Klaviyo services and building into the current offerings that they have for their customers and, just by using a tool like ours, helping them keep growing their businesses, at the same time them being able to expand or offer new service for their customers and do a good job with it too, since, you know, we have a proven track record of actually helping Shopify customers too. So that's something that they're they're they're excited about.

Speaker 2: 28:16

Apart from that, tech partners that we're working with are kind of global. There's a few local ones, for sure, in like the regions that I was talking about, like costa rica, panama, guatemala, but, um, they, they are helping us for sure, kind of like play within their region, since we can also integrate with them. Maybe they're a little bit more close to the post-sale experience or during the checkout experience, which we aren't that maybe closely entertained with. But still, you know we have the resources, the connections and the content to collaborate in a way that, like I mentioned, you know, just brings this whole kind of ecosystem mentality to. But yeah, I don't know you as an agency, did you ever kind of like dabble in Latin America or work with any Latin American clients or get contacted by anybody.

Speaker 1: 29:13

No more. So just Europe, some Australia, a few like Canadian brands here and there, but I'd say that's primarily it.

Speaker 2: 29:25

Yeah it sure it's its own world and everybody has their own prices and thresholds in mind. So for them, staying within the region and looking for better alternatives in terms of cost is always primordial. So that's why maybe they don't come to the US.

Speaker 1: 29:48

Yeah, no, we would be very expensive to them. I don't think it would necessarily work super well. Also, you know, I think maybe not as much in Latam, but like some regions for sure, there's a pretty significant language barrier. That would be challenging to sort of work through and I'm sure you know there are some team members on the electric side who could speak, you know, different language here or there. But I think to like fully service an account, you need the whole team to be able to, you know, communicate and liaison with the client, which is not an investment that we were going to make or plan.

Speaker 2: 30:39

Yeah, no, that's been something that's been good. Actually, we have, like, a lot of teammates that are more than willing to work with me in terms of giving the customer a good experience, even though there are language barriers or white spaces in terms of the way that we're going to be working together or the process or the steps that we're going to follow. But they are up to the challenge. They do not shy away, they don't get intimidated by the fact that they don't understand anything on a call, and it's been resulting in some great experiences for a few recent Mexican customers that I've had. Now I work with a specific colleague of mine, cam, and he's always super down. He's like, yeah, any Latin American customer if you want on my way. You know I don't shy.

Speaker 1: 31:30

I was like yes, I always request them to work with me.

Speaker 2: 31:33

That's awesome. Yeah, giving them the delighted experience for me is the most important thing, because that's what's going to guarantee their rest of experience with Playbill too.

Speaker 1: 31:45

Yeah, that makes sense. Well, thank you so much for coming on and joining me today, but before we hop, can you let everybody know where they can find you online?

Speaker 2: 31:59

Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn. My name again is Mateo Velayos, and then I'm on Instagram too, as a but uh, yeah, if you ever need me reach out, send me a dm. Happy to help, uh, with anything specifically clavio, latin america sales, or just networking and having a good time. Feel free to reach out. That's well. That's what me and branding will be doing together in Miami. Thanks for having me, man.

Speaker 1: 32:30

Yeah, of course. Thank you everybody for listening, as always, this is Brandon Amoroso. You can find me at BrandonAmorosocom, electrummarketingcom or Scalistai, and I need like a fourth website to throw in there. We will see you next time.