What are the cultural differences between Chile, Peru and the U.S.?
Lima, Peru and Santiago, Chile are two very different cities with very different histories, cultures and people. Peruvians were passionate about preserving their culture. 87 ancient civilizations resided in Peru’s land. Peruvians were friendly, open, welcoming and warm. They also tended to have a distinctive look. Peruvians are darker skinned, tend to be below 5’8 and their Spanish is very clearly pronounced.
Chileans were quite different from the Peruvians. Chile has a tumultuous history and it seemed they were less focused on preserving aspects of their cultural history as much as the Peruvians were. On the other hand, Chileans had a more formal set of customs, business culture and a distinct dialect of Spanish which they spoke. One of our recent meetings with Parque Arauco, a mall owner and operator, provided some interesting insights into Chile and and Peruvian culture. When we met with the Parque Arauco representative, one of the primary factors she cited as responsible for the continued growth in shopping mall retail was cultural. South America uses malls as cultural meeting places, not just shopping centers. Friends and families travel to malls and congregate to eat lunch, shop, play games and enjoy all the activities the mall has to offer aside from solely shopping in its stores. I hate mall shopping in the U.S. and only shop online, but considering that South Americans have less public spaces to congregate, this makes sense. This altered my perspective on the potential growth of ecommerce in South America. While eCommerce seems ripe for exponential growth in the region, strong cultural barriers such as the mall experience may be the major impediments that slow its adoption.
In addition to these cultural differences, the postal system doesn’t work as well in Peru and Chile. In the U.S. while we all complain about the postal service, it actually works fairly well most of the time. 99% of homes have addresses and the mail gets delivered to those within a reasonable amount of time. This difference means that an eCommerce retailer who is trying to make inroads into these South American countries will likely need to either hire a local courier or create their own courier business to deliver packages more effectively than the public services do currently.
Hasta pronto! Dan


















