Selling on Mercado Livre, Amazon and Shopee from abroad

The short answer

Three platforms dominate Brazilian e-commerce, Mercado Livre, Amazon Brasil and Shopee, and each sets its own seller requirements, but the underlying pattern is the same: a full, competitive storefront needs a Brazilian CNPJ, an inscrição estadual for fulfilment, and a digital certificate to issue invoices. None of the three has an open, documented programme for a purely foreign-registered seller to list directly at scale, and the platform itself is not a substitute importer of record.

Seller requirements by platform

A foreign-owned seller with any of the three runs on Lucro Presumido or Lucro Real, since Simples Nacional is closed to foreign participation; see corporate tax and dividends for the regime rules.

The platform is not the importer of record

Stock sent to Mercado Envios Full travels under an NF de remessa, CFOP 5.905 for intrastate movement or 6.905 for interstate, naming Mercado Livre Envios Ltda as recipient and declared at cost value rather than sale price. Amazon FBA runs a parallel structure: an NF-e de remessa moves stock to the distribution centre, and a separate NF-e de venda covers the sale to the end buyer, with inscrição estadual in São Paulo required since that is where Amazon's warehouses sit, and MEI status barred from holding one (Brazilian law does not let an MEI operate branches). No explicit rule states "the platform cannot be the importer of record," but the document flow makes the point regardless: reaching a platform's own warehouse already requires a Brazilian owner with a CNPJ and inscrição estadual issuing the NF de remessa. There is no route to a fulfilment programme that bypasses this.

ANVISA at the listing level

Mercado Livre's own published rules describe cosmetics, hygiene, sanitising and health products by risk grade: Grau 2 cosmetics and hygiene products (self-tanners, sunscreens, hair products), risk-2 sanitising products and risk 3-4 health products need registration on the platform's reading; Grau 1 cosmetics and hygiene, risk-1 sanitising products and risk 1-2 health products need only notification. The listing has to show the registration or notification number, or a note that ANVISA was notified, and the platform checks on request rather than systematically at entry.

That framing does not match RDC 907/2024's actual rule, corrected on this site since September 2026: registration (Registro) applies only to the nine product groups named in article 34, and everything else, including most Grau 2 products, follows comunicação prévia under article 35. See ANVISA registration for the full list and the correction. Enforcement is not theoretical: on 24 July 2026, ANVISA resolutions RE 2.896 through 2.899 and 2.902 banned manufacture and sale of a list of irregular cosmetics that included a product sold on Shopee, with a withdrawal order. An ANVISA director stated on 2 April 2026 that platforms without internal processes to catch irregular products will be held liable, and that RDC 44/2009 is considered outdated with a replacement in preparation. The practical conclusion: get ANVISA regularisation done before listing, not worked on in parallel, and secure an AFE (Autorização de Funcionamento) where the category requires one.

Who is liable for tax when the seller is abroad

LC 214/2025 article 22 makes a digital platform, even one domiciled abroad, jointly liable for IBS/CBS and stands in the supplier's place when that supplier is resident or domiciled abroad; article 23 requires foreign platforms to register, with tax otherwise withheld at reference rates on transfers to the supplier. In practice this means a foreign seller without a Brazilian fiscal document makes the platform the taxpayer in its place, which is why cross-border sellers face stricter checks than domestic ones and why that gap is likely to widen rather than close. Whether marketplaces themselves are separately liable for ICMS on the transactions they intermediate remains an open legal question: the STF has recognised repercussão geral in RE 1.554.371 (Tema 1413, rapporteur Minister Luiz Fux) without deciding it, so model this conservatively rather than assume the point is settled.

Cross-border and global-selling programmes

Mercado Libre's Global Selling programme covers five Latin American markets, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Argentina, from one account, with free listing and proceeds paid in USD every two weeks (minimum transfer USD 500). Its registration and terms pages sit behind login, and seller jurisdiction requirements are not published; a claim that a US, Chinese or Hong Kong entity is required could not be verified from open sources. No open inbound programme for foreign sellers was found on Amazon Brasil. Shopee has no inbound cross-border programme at all; its Plataforma Internacional (SIP) is an outbound feature for Brazilian sellers exporting to Mexico and Argentina, invitation only.

Commissions, shown as orientation only

Commission rates are reported inconsistently across sources and change without much notice; run the platform's own fee simulator for a specific SKU rather than budgeting off a published range. As orientation: Mercado Livre runs Clássico at 10-14% and Premium at 15-19%, plus a variable fee that has run to 232 weight-and-price combinations since March 2026. Amazon Brasil runs roughly 10-15% by category (Beleza 13%, Alimentos 10%), plus a minimum commission of R$1-2 and a Professional plan at R$19/month, free for new sellers for the first 12 months. Shopee runs 14% above R$80 and 20% up to R$79.99, plus a fixed fee of R$4-26, with participation in its free-shipping programme made mandatory (opt-out removed) since March 2026.

Rollout order

Start on one platform, Mercado Livre being the largest by most measures here, and add a second only once reputation and document flow are established on the first. Full's reputation and sales-history requirements make a simultaneous start on all three largely pointless.

Sources

• Seller requirements: Mercado Livre payout and seller pages; Amazon Brasil guia de cadastro and seller pages; Shopee Brasil Termos de Serviço and seller payment pages. All platform-published; several detail pages sit behind login.
• ANVISA framing at listing level and the correction: Mercado Livre's own rules page (as summarised in the source research) against RDC 907/2024 articles 32, 34-35, confirmed on AnvisaLegis. See ANVISA registration for full sourcing.
• Enforcement actions: gov.br/anvisa, 24 July 2026 resolutions RE 2.896, 2.897, 2.898, 2.899, 2.902; an ANVISA director's 2 April 2026 statement, reached through a secondary interview (Futuro da Saúde).
• Platform tax liability: LC 214/2025, articles 22 and 23, planalto.gov.br. STF RE 1.554.371, Tema 1413: reached through a secondary legal source (Marcelo Tostes Advogados), not independently confirmed on the STF's own docket.
• Logistics document flow: platform fulfilment documentation (Mercado Envios Full, Amazon FBA), as summarised in the source research; no single official page states the "not importer of record" conclusion directly.
• Global-selling programmes: platform marketing pages, secondary in nature since detail pages sit behind login.
• Commission rates: platform pricing pages plus secondary commercial summaries (Ecommerce na Prática, Go Smarter and others), shown as orientation only.

Facts verified 23-24 September 2026, drawing on research dated 9 September 2026 for platform-specific detail. Platform terms and commission structures change; run the platform's own current terms before pricing a launch.