Latin American e-commerce "boom!"

Visa commissioned a study to figure out e-commerce popularity in the countries of the Latin America. As per the data gained in the course of the study held by the way by the AmericaEconomia Intelligence research over the last two years e-commerce increased 121 percent with $10.9 billion spent online by the consumers in 2007.

The highest rise fell on Venezuela where online commerce increased 224 percent for the last two years. The listing is continued by Chile with 183 percent, Mexico with 143 percent and Brazil with 116 percent.

The most popular method for online payments with the consumers was credit cards preferred by 70 percent of online shoppers.

The rapid growth is attributed to a 48% increase in Internet penetration, as well as more than 100% growth in broadband access in the region over the last two years. Besides, customers in the region are provided with the ability to buy international goods previously out of their reach.

However, the industry represents just 0.32% of the region's GDP against 0.98% in the US which shows that e-commerce sector is still to be developed to achieve mature level.