Payment methods in Brazil: learn about the main ones

Brazil’s payment option universe is marked by exclusive options, such as Pix, and well-consolidated habits. Learn about this market’s particularities.

 

 

Brazil is a country of continental dimensions with over 200 million consumers and one of the world’s highest growth rates. According to The Global Payments Report 2022, Brazilian e-commerce will post annual growth of 18% through 2025. To effectively tap this market, knowledge of Brazilian consumers’ habits and preferences, especially the most popular payment methods, is key. After all, your efforts to acquire customers will be made in vain if during checkout they do not see their preferred payment method.

 

Brazilian e-commerce: continuous growth

 

In the first half of 2022, e-commerce sales in Brazil amounted to R$118.6 billion, increasing 6% on the same period of 2021. Meanwhile, in the first half of 2021, e-commerce sales posted growth of 47% on the prior-year period. To give you an idea of this market’s growth over the last decade, in 2012, e-commerce sales stood at only R$1.65 billion. 

 

In the first half of 2022, the number of online consumers in Brazil grew by 18%, to 49.8 million, with sales led by the home appliance and telephony categories, which grew by 19% and 18%, respectively. 

 

Pure Players, which are retailers born in the digital environment, were the e-commerce platforms that most attracted Brazilian consumers. The space for cross-border e-commerce remained highly important, with 54% of Brazilian e-shoppers making purchases from international virtual stores. The data are from WebShoppers 46, which is produced by Nielsen IQ Ebit in partnership with Bexs Pay. 

 

Most popular online payment methods in Brazil

 

According to a survey by the consumer protection service SPC Brasil, 52 million Brazilians used credit as a payment method, but most do not have credit cards accepted internationally, only domestically. Local payment methods are essential for reaching the Brazilian market and are used by consumers in around 90% of online sales. Learn more about Brazil’s main payment methods below:

 

Pix

 

Pix is an instant payment method that already has achieved wide acceptance among Brazilian consumers. Pix already is the leader in bank transfers and has been consolidating its position in Brazilian e-commerce, accepted by 78% of platforms. According to the Payment Study conducted by the consulting firm Gmattos in July 2022, this acceptance rate should reach 92% by July 2023. Most virtual stores that include Pix as a payment method offer some advantage for clients who opt for instant payment, such as discounts on the final purchase amount. Launched in November 2020, Pix currently has over 140 million registered users. Outside Brazil, however, consumers and merchants often ask themselves what Pix is or if they can use Pix abroad. For 44now, the service is only available in Brazil.

 

Bank slip or Boleto

 

Also according to the Gmattos study, 82.6% of virtual stores that adopted Pix did not stop offering boleto as a payment method, with the percentage of e-commerce platforms accepting boleto the same as those accepting Pix: 78%. Boleto is a document with a unique bar code that is generated during checkout and can be paid at banks and other establishments, such as supermarkets and lottery stores. The main advantage of accepting boleto for e-commerce retailers is being able to serve unbanked consumers.

 

Domestic credit cards

 

Brazilians’ favorite payment method is still domestic credit cards, which are accepted by 98.3% of online retailers. For consumers, the main advantage of credit cards is the option of paying in monthly installments, which is a demand very well understood by virtual stores,  with 32.2% of Brazilian e-commerce platforms offering payment in up to ten monthly installments, which is the most common payment plan offered in the country. 

 

Payment plans: integral to Brazilian consumer habits

 

A longstanding practice in Brazil is offering consumers monthly payment plans, which in practice increases their purchase power. Data from the Credit Protection Service (SPC Brasil) indicate that 79% of Brazilians pay for their purchases in installments whenever they have the option. The practice consists of dividing the purchase amount into several monthly payments, within the limit offered by the credit card. In Brazil, it is easy to find establishments that accept payment in up to 12, 24 or 36 monthly installments. 

 

Buy Now Pay Later, an e-commerce trend that is growing in popularity mainly among younger consumers in the United States and Europe, is very similar to the payment plans widely offered in Brazil. With BNPL, however, the short-term financing of goods and services has a simpler approval process than when a credit card is requested and also does not set a limit on the purchase amount. In addition, most Buy Now Pay Later services offer the option of dividing the total purchase amount into only four payments over a period of six weeks. 

 

NuPay: new payment method of giant Nubank

 

Some fintechs and banks in Brazil already offer the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) method, such as the giant Brazil-based card issuer Nubank, which recently launched the NuPay solution. Now, the over 54 million Nubank customers can make payments via debit or in up to 24 interest-free installments directly through the Nubank app’s secure environment. The new feature also will reach the cross-border segment, and Bexs Pay already has included NuPay in its range of Brazilian payment methods.

 

Brazil: tap one of the world’s largest e-commerce markets by accepting digital payments

E-commerce platforms anywhere in the world can sell to Brazilian consumers if they use a PSP Payment Processor enabled to receive the country’s payment methods, such as Pix, boleto, bank transfers, digital wallets and credit and debit cards. With Pay-In from Bexs Pay, your e-commerce gains an integrated payment processing and FX platform that enables you to offer end consumers currency rates in real time via Smart Hedge Technology. This means that consumers in Brazil see the actual cost of products, freight and other fees involved in the purchase already converted into Brazilian real. You can monitor all transactions via a user-friendly dashboard and request remittance of the amount from sales to your preferred bank account, in any currency and anywhere in the world. Talk to our experts!