🏪 Oxxo

Today, catch 3 charts fresh out of the oven on Mexico’s retail giant.

We’ll be honest: Oxxo is one of our favorite brands. And no, they didn’t pay us to say that.

Can you blame us? We were founded by two Mexicans in a town with no fewer than eighteen Oxxo locations. Since being founded in Monterrey in 1976 as a vendor of beers, cigarettes, and snacks, Oxxo has become the ubiquitous superstar of Mexican convenience stores.

This inexorable rise has far outpaced far older South American retail peers like Chile’s Falabella or Colombia’s Grupo Éxito. In fact, it’s even penetrated many of their core markets, showing perhaps that the future of Latin American retail has fluorescent lighting and massive red and yellow ads on the windows.

Part of Oxxo’s appeal is its position as a one-stop shop for all your everyday needs. Long gone are the days of being a mere cigarette and booze vendor; today customers can pay bills, buy bus and plane tickets, and even send money to friends and family.

This has helped the convenience store transcend the confines of retail to become an establishment rivalling the world’s hegemons. Its 24K+ store locations make it more widespread and prominent than Walmart, coffee giant Starbucks, and even the famed Golden Arches.

Turns out, the secret to beating Ronald McDonald himself to the top comes from providing for all needs, including a relatively recent fintech offering, Spin by Oxxo.

Launched in late 2021, Spin’s soaring success has outpaced most Latin American fintech competitors to reach 62.6M customers—or, y’know, half of the total Mexican population. Honestly, most government programs will reach fewer citizens than this fintech.

Now, we do have a small caveat when extolling the virtues of Oxxo’s crown jewel. Out of the tens of millions of Spin users, just under half are inactive, meaning their debit cards and corresponding apps are going unused and untouched. While 32M active users (of which two-thirds use the Premia loyalty rewards program) are nothing to scoff at, Oxxo must be a bit concerned by the number of inactive customers on their app.

Or maybe not. After all, over 13M Mexicans shop at Oxxo every day. They pay their bills, feed their families, even secure travel tickets. In less than half a century, Oxxo has risen above all of its national and international competitors to become the undisputed convenience store giant of the hemisphere today.

And, if current trends persist, perhaps the retail giant of the world one day, as evidenced by FEMSA’s entrances into Europe and the US. 7-Eleven beware.