Brazil’s largest online stores are increasingly adding Pix as a payment method, with a record share in March, while debt cards are losing ground since the launch of Central Bank’s instant-payment system, the latest edition of the payment study Gmattos found.
Last month, 69.5% of the analyzed stores offered the option of payment via Pix, compared with 16.9% in early 2021, when the survey was held for the first time. The method is behind credit cards (accepted by 98.3% of stores) and banking bar-coded bills known as boletos (accepted in 76.3% of them). The study included 59 online stores, which account for 85% of e-commerce in the country.
According to the survey, the availability of debit card payment, which has never been very high, has been dropping substantially. In the January 2021 edition, it was 37.3%; two months later, it peaked at 42.3%; last month, it dropped to 27.1%.
Gastão Mattos, co-founder and CEO of Gmattos, believes that debit cards are close to the floor, but sees no sign of recovery. Rogério Panca, head of the Brazilian Association of Credit Card Companies and Services (Abecs), told Valor this week that the expansion of payments with debt cards in e-commerce is a priority of the trade group.
Mr. Mattos believes that Pix may reach 90% of stores by the end of this year or early next year. He recalled that 72% of stores that don’t work with Pix are making some kind of cash payment available, including boletos and debit cards. In other words, they have some propensity, in terms of business strategy, to also offer the Pix.
“In these stores, the option is not offered yet probably due to technological difficulties, such as integration,” Mr. Mattos said. Companies that do not offer any cash payment alternative typically work with higher average ticket sales.
The acceptance of boletos, on the other hand, has remained relatively stable. With the growth of Pix, the spread between both has shrunk, and the instant-payment system could soon reach the second position in the ranking, although there is no direct competition between payment methods.
According to Mr. Mattos, the number of online stores that offer some kind of discount for consumers who pay with Pix has been increasing. In addition to the fact that payment is instantaneous, the method also increases the cart conversion rate, or the number of purchases actually completed after the items are added to the online shopping cart. This rate is around 30% with debit cards and 80% with Pix.
Credit cards, a traditional driver of e-commerce, remains in the top of the ranking. Mr. Mattos points out, however, that alternative installment plans are on the rise. “This is a strong trend for the year. The existing options are clearly not meeting everyone’s needs,” he said, citing installment plans via boleto and direct financing with large banks. “I think smaller, digital banks will also offer more such options.”
Wallets were accepted by 44.1% of the stores analyzed in March, up from 54.2% in the same month of 2021, Gmattos said.
Source: Valor International