- Expanding access to affordable products in Central America is Pacifiko started by Jorge Schippers MBA ’13.
- When the company first opened for business at the end of 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic.
- It provides one- and two-day motorcycle delivery using a combination of in-house logistical firms and outside vendors.
Expanding access to affordable products in Central America is Pacifiko, an online marketplace started by Jorge Schippers MBA ’13. Tens of thousands of products are available on the company’s website, and quick delivery to every part of Guatemala and Costa Rica is made possible by its fulfillment centers.
Pacifiko’s influence in the area has expanded far beyond customer convenience by pursuing its aim of providing a more convenient and cost-effective shopping experience.
Latin America
When the company first opened for business at the end of 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic had just begun to rock the world. In the beginning, it sold a lot of health-related products like masks and hand sanitizer. It also became the focal point of changes in lifestyles, selling enormous quantities of supplies for home offices and schools in an area where these kinds of things were getting harder and harder to find.
In a more recent effort to end child malnutrition in Central America, Pacifico has partnered with the Mathile Institute for the Advancement of Human Nutrition to help facilitate donations.
As soon as the nonprofit learned about Pacifiko, it decided to launch its micronutrient product Chispuditos on the market and informed its donors that they could buy a large quantity through Pacifiko, which would then be distributed to the rural areas where families most needed it.
Schipper, a native of Guatemala, is proud of watching his country’s economy grow; in fact, one of the reasons he enrolled in MIT’s Sloan School of Management in 2011 to pursue an MBA was to help Central America’s development. Observing Amazon’s reluctance to expand into smaller developing nations like those in Latin America, he decided to launch his own online business.
Due to the decline in credit card usage, Pacefik now accepts bank account transfers and cash payments upon delivery. Additionally, it provides one- and two-day motorcycle delivery using a combination of in-house logistical firms and outside vendors. With the same price and accessibility offered everywhere in the world, the company does not discriminate based on the place of purchase.
To boost production in regional economies, the company also encourages local business owners and artisans to sell on Pacifiko. Since Pacifico has raised venture capital, it stands out from the vast majority of family-owned businesses in Latin America. Schippers hopes that the company’s success will draw more foreign investment to the area.
As the business develops, Pacifico may start extending credit to vendors and customers, opening up new avenues for business expansion in developing nations where conventional financing is more difficult to obtain.
