Mercado Livre adds sorting robots to its São Paulo warehouses to pack multi-item orders faster

CAJAMAR, Brazil, September 2025 — Mercado Livre has put a second generation of robots to work in its São Paulo warehouses. Here's what launched, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of Sept. 24, 2025)

Fleet: 125 sorting robots handling up to 105,000 items a day, the company says. (Mercado Livre)
Speed: up to 25% off the processing cycle for multi-item orders, about an hour less. (Mobile Time)
Cost: not disclosed.

What launched

Mercado Livre announced the robots at its Mercado Livre Experience event on Sept. 24, 2025, a little over a year after its first robots started work. They handle consolidation: when a customer buys several items stored in different parts of a warehouse, the robot moves them so they can be packed together. Estadão's example was a shampoo and a conditioner kept in different spots.

Estadão described the robots as shaped like a horizontal suitcase, with wheels underneath and a bin on top. The system runs on two floors in 670 square meters, the company says. Mobile Time reported that the robots run in two distribution centers in Cajamar and connect over Wi-Fi.

"We are the first in Brazil to use this," Luiz Vergueiro, Mercado Livre's senior logistics director, told reporters, according to Estadão.

The earlier fleet

In June 2024, Mercado Livre began using robots that lift and carry shelves to workers at its SP04 center in Cajamar. Estadão reported then that those robots were made by the Chinese company Quicktron, could lift up to 600 kilograms, and ran on an eight-hour battery. Its 100 robots then in service moved 2,500 shelves a day, the paper said, and the company planned to have 334 by the end of 2024. Época Negócios said they were developed in partnership with Quicktron, and that the company expected them to cut order processing time by 20% and workers' daily walking distance by 70%.

What the company says the robots do

Cutting about an hour from multi-item orders widens the window for same-day delivery, Vergueiro said. In cities with same-day service, he said, the order cutoff could move from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

The company says it has almost 500 robots working in different processes. The new ones arrive as it pushes faster delivery: it says it delivers 56% of purchases in state capitals within 24 hours, a figure it puts at 73% in São Paulo state (Mercado Livre). Mercado Livre also says it grew its logistics floor space 47% in 2025 and flies eight cargo planes with GOLLOG. O Globo reported the launch came after Mercado Livre cut its free-shipping minimum from R$79 to R$19, which it said lifted July sales volume 34% over June.

Jobs

The company says the automation causes no layoffs and that it moves warehouse workers into higher-value roles. "Even with robots we will hire another 12,000 to 13,000 people this year," Fernando Yunes, its senior vice president and head of Brazil, told Mobile Time. Vergueiro said the long-term idea is to take the robots to other distribution centers, but the focus for now is Cajamar, and that there are no plans yet to automate last-mile delivery.

What went wrong

Shifting counts. The release says 105,000 items a day; Mobile Time says the products of 105,000 orders. The release says almost 500 robots in all; Estadão says 500 before the new ones.
Unnamed maker. The company hasn't said who built the new robots.
What we don't know yet: the cost, error rates, and how many workers were moved.

Our follow-up question for Mercado Livre

Who makes the 125 sorting robots, and is it 105,000 items or 105,000 orders a day?

Sources

Mercado Livre, “Mercado Livre anuncia dados inéditos de impacto econômico no país e introduz nova geração de robôs para reforçar sua operação logística,” Sept. 24, 2025. news.mercadolivre.com
Estadão, Circe Bonatelli, “Mercado Livre 'emprega' nova geração de robôs que separam 105 mil produtos por dia; veja vídeo,” Sept. 24, 2025. estadao.com.br
O Globo, “Mercado Livre usará 125 robôs para separar pedidos no Brasil, após novo frete grátis impulsionar vendas,” Sept. 24, 2025. oglobo.globo.com
Mobile Time, “Mercado Livre adota robôs autônomos para separar pedidos,” Sept. 24, 2025. (The reporter traveled at Mercado Livre's invitation.) mobiletime.com.br
Estadão, “Mercado Livre adota robôs que trabalham oito horas seguidas e separam até 100 mil compras por dia,” June 5, 2024. estadao.com.br
Época Negócios, “Mercado Livre passa a usar robôs em centro de distribuição em SP,” June 2024. epocanegocios.globo.com

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder