Argentina's ecommerce market hit around $25 billion in 2026 and is still growing double digits. That's bigger than Chile, Peru, and Colombia combined. And if you're a Shopify merchant looking for your next Spanish-speaking market, it's the country almost nobody is writing about in English.

There's a reason for that. Argentina is harder to enter than Mexico or Colombia. Inflation is volatile, import rules shift every few months, and Mercado Pago dominates payments in ways Shopify merchants from outside Latin America don't expect. But COD is still alive in the regions where banking penetration is thinnest — and the merchants who learn the market first tend to stay first.

The Argentina Ecommerce Market Is Bigger and Weirder Than You Think

Two numbers to anchor on. B2C ecommerce in Argentina is projected to clear $20 billion in 2025 and keep expanding by around 11% annually through 2029. Mercado Libre — the local Amazon — just posted a 27th consecutive quarter of revenue growth above 30% year over year, with Q3 2025 net revenue at $7.4 billion across Latin America.

Card payments still process about 46% of online transactions. Digital wallets are growing at a 21.6% CAGR and projected to reach 59% of online transaction volume by 2027. That sounds like a prepaid market. It mostly is — in Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Rosario.

Outside those cities, the picture changes. Banking coverage drops, wallet adoption lags, and a meaningful share of buyers still want to pay cash when the box arrives. That's your COD opportunity: tier-2 and tier-3 cities where Mercado Pago isn't the reflex and card penetration is weaker.

Mercado Pago Is the Default — Plan Around It, Not Against It

Mercado Pago isn't just a payment method. It's an operating system. Around 58% of Argentinians say they use it frequently for online shopping, and it controls close to 80% of the wallet float in the country.

What this means for you as a Shopify merchant:

If you don't offer Mercado Pago at checkout, you're ignoring the largest payment surface in the country. Shopify supports it through payment providers — set it up before launch.
Customers expect installments ("cuotas sin interés"). Argentina's inflation makes 3-to-12-month interest-free installments a core buying behavior, not a nice-to-have. Merchants who enable them lift conversion meaningfully.
COD works best as a secondary option for unbanked or cautious buyers, not as a primary. Offer both. Let the customer pick.

Merchants who treat Argentina as "just another COD market" and skip Mercado Pago usually underperform. Merchants who offer Mercado Pago plus COD plus installments usually capture the widest buyer base.

The Import Tax Maze: What Will Actually Cost You

This is where most foreign merchants get burned. Argentina's import rules change often, and the 2026 framework has moved in both directions — some taxes eased, others tightened.

The current reality for courier-based cross-border shipments:

Courier shipments are capped at $1,000 USD per shipment, 50kg, and no more than 3 units of the same product in one package. Plan SKU strategy around this — bulk shipping a single product in quantity triggers extra scrutiny.
Postal shipments get a $50 USD allowance on the first 12 packages per person per year. Anything above $50 pays 50% on the excess. For a DTC brand sending hundreds of orders, this allowance is irrelevant past the first month.
Duties and VAT use CIF value (cost + insurance + freight). Duties range from 0–35% depending on HS code. VAT is 21% on top. Electronics and apparel often land in the higher bands.
PAIS tax on foreign currency purchases was eliminated in late 2024, and the import-for-export version was scrapped too. This reduces total landed cost versus a year ago — but don't assume it's permanent.

The operational lesson: if you're selling into Argentina cross-border, your published price needs to be the landed price. Argentine buyers have seen enough "surprise customs" charges to cancel an order the moment one shows up. Build duties into your retail price or ship from a local fulfillment partner.

Pick the Right Courier: Andreani, OCA, or Correo Argentino

Three carriers dominate domestic delivery. Each has a different sweet spot.

Andreani — the private market leader for ecommerce. Fastest in and between major cities, strong tracking, tight integration with most Latin American ecommerce platforms. Higher cost. If your AOV is above ~$30 USD and you're shipping to Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Rosario, Mendoza, this is usually the pick.

OCA — the other private heavyweight. Similar speed in urban zones, sometimes better coverage in mid-size cities. Prices shift by zone; compare quotes against Andreani per lane rather than picking one as default.

Correo Argentino (with ePaq) — the national postal service. Reaches the entire country including rural and remote areas where the private carriers either don't deliver or charge premium rates. Slower (2–5 business days domestic), but charges by actual weight rather than dimensional weight, which helps margin on light-but-bulky items.

The right answer is usually not one carrier. It's a split — Andreani or OCA for metro zones, Correo Argentino for the rest. Shopify's shipping zone rules let you route orders by postal code to different carriers at checkout. Set this up before you take your first Argentine order, not after.

Pricing in a Peso Economy Is Its Own Skill

Argentina's inflation has cooled from its 2023–2024 peaks, but it's still higher than almost any other ecommerce market you've sold into. Prices that hold in Mexico for a year might need updating every few weeks in Argentina.

A few practical moves:

Price in Argentine pesos (ARS), not USD. Showing USD prices signals "foreign, expensive, probably customs hassle" to local buyers.
Build a pricing review cadence into your operations — monthly at minimum, weekly if you're selling high-inflation categories. Set reminders; don't trust yourself to notice.
Accept that "cuotas sin interés" is effectively a discount. Offering 3 or 6 interest-free installments on a product costs you the finance charge, but it's baked into Argentine buying psychology. Price accordingly.
For COD orders specifically, inflation risk runs both ways. A 5-day dispatch window in Argentina can move the peso-dollar rate by several percent. Fast dispatch isn't just about conversion — it's margin protection.

What to Set Up in Shopify Before Your First Argentine Order

A minimum viable setup for entering the market:

Add Mercado Pago as a payment provider. Enable installments. This alone drives a large share of your conversion.
Enable COD for postal codes outside the top-5 metros. Gate it behind phone/OTP verification to cut junk orders — Argentina's COD fraud pattern looks like the rest of Latin America's.
Localize the store. Spanish (Argentine, not neutral) for copy. ARS pricing. Local address format with province and postal code validation.
Set shipping zones by carrier. Andreani/OCA for AMBA and major cities. Correo Argentino ePaq for everywhere else.
Write your returns policy for Argentine law. Consumer protection requires a 10-day right of withdrawal for online purchases. Bake the cost of reverse logistics into your pricing — don't get surprised by it.
Optimize the checkout for mobile. Argentine ecommerce skews heavily mobile, and your order form should reflect that — short, single-column, with installment options visible before the pay button.

If you're accepting COD alongside prepaid in Argentina, an order form with built-in OTP verification, partial deposit options, and multi-language support handles most of the friction natively. That's the category EasySell sits in — useful if you want to avoid stitching three apps together for a launch.

Start With One City, Not the Whole Country

The merchants who enter Argentina well don't try to launch nationwide on day one. They pick one city — usually Buenos Aires or Córdoba — prove the unit economics on a single product line, and then expand outward. Argentina rewards that kind of discipline. The logistics, tax, and payment complexity is too high to figure out at scale.

Pick your first city. Run 50 orders. Learn what breaks. Then grow.