Where to sell your product in Argentina

This is about platforms other than Mercado Libre and Instagram.

Mercado Libre is someone else’s platform. The commission is high, the storefront and the customer are not yours, and there are thousands of competitors around you. Sooner or later you need your own store. I went through what to build it on, by a single criterion: how many pesos end up with you rather than the platform.

The formula is simple. Profit is traffic times conversion times order value, minus fees, shipping and subscription. The Mercado Pago fee of 4–8% is the same everywhere, so we set it aside and compare the rest.

What each platform takes on top of Mercado Pago

• a custom-coded site, 0 dollars a month and 0% on top;
• Empretienda, about 7 dollars a month and 0% on top;
• Tiendanube, 18–25 dollars a month, 0% with its own Pago Nube and 0.7–2% with anything else;
• Shopify, about 32 dollars a month plus 2% of every sale on the basic plan;
• Mercado Libre and “Mi Página”, 15–21% of every sale.

Why Shopify is expensive in Argentina

Shopify Payments does not work here, Stripe is not in the country. So you pay through Mercado Pago as an external gateway, and Shopify charges an extra 2% of every sale for it. Plus the highest subscription fee and local delivery only through paid apps.

In money, at 3,000 dollars a month in turnover, Shopify costs about 90 dollars against 20 for Tiendanube. Over a year that is almost 900 dollars handed over for nothing.

What happened to Mercado Shops

It closed on 31 December 2025. The replacement, called Mi Página, is a storefront inside Mercado Libre with the full marketplace commission of 15–21%. No domain of your own, no autonomy. As a separate store it will not do.

Why everyone is on Tiendanube

Tiendanube is the number one platform for small business in Argentina, and almost all local online retail runs on it. It is local and cheap. Mercado Pago, instalments and delivery via Correo Argentino, Andreani and OCA work out of the box, and Envío Nube even gives you a shipping discount. Switch it on and sell. For 99% of sellers that is the optimum.

A custom-coded site is in theory the most profitable of all. No extra fees, better SEO and speed. But only if you have a developer, or enough time to build the site with AI. Without that the pain starts. Which is why the mass choice in Argentina is Tiendanube. Shopify is pretty, but the most expensive.

Keep Mercado Libre and Instagram as traffic channels. Take the money in your own store, where you keep 92–96% instead of 80%.

What eats into profit on any platform: the Mercado Pago fee of 4–8%, taxes under monotributo and ARCA, and for food also health registrations. It does not affect the choice of platform, but keep it in the plan.

Sources. On Shopify Payments in Argentina, see talo.com.ar, and on the closure of Mercado Shops, wnpower.com.