If you are planning to expand your business to Latin America, there are some aspects that you need to keep an eye on. No matter which route an international player takes, offering local payment methods and local currencies is essential. After all, Latin Americans prefer payments that they already have access to and are familiar with.

To help you in this journey, a partnership with a payment solution that provides local payment methods is fundamental to reaching the full potential of this fast-growing market — besides providing you with much needed local expertise, to better navigate each market’s opportunities and challenges.

Latin America is experiencing high growth of e-commerce in their Top 6 Markets: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Peru, in respective order. With more than 30% of annual growth in online sales, 67% of the continent's population shopped online in 2021. Continuing to rise, by 2025 Latam should sum up $ 646 billion in e-commerce sales.

While Latam’s e-commerce market it’s developing fast, its population moves for faster and more digital – and still local – payment methods. In our Digital Renaissance in Latin America white paper, we showed that 78% of the region’s customers use local payment methods when shopping online.

That’s why a partnership with a payment solution is crucial if you want to expand your business in the continent and make the most of its huge potential. But when it comes to choosing a payment provider,  what do you need to look out for?

Choose the best fit with your business

When choosing a payment partner, it’s fundamental to ask yourself whether or not the company has what it takes to provide the excellence you need. For example, to sell in Latin America, you have to be able to offer a wide variety of payment methods for each country – Latam markets are very different from each other, but still share a lot of characteristics. How well does your chosen partner know these similarities and these peculiarities?

Here at PagSeguro, for example, we offer over 140 local payment methods in 17 Latin American countries, including all of the region’s Top 6 Markets: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. Thus, you can reach Latam’s full potential – and $375 billion e-commerce market.

From the domestic-only credit cards and cash-based methods in each country to rising stars such as Pix in Brazil and OXXO in Mexico, we share with our merchants all our expertise built on almost two decades of operating in the region.

Fraud prevention features

Fraud is common in Latin America, so merchants must constantly be alert. The number of fraud attempts in e-commerce in the region can be 97% bigger than in other continents, with the most common scams being chargebacks.

To avoid expensing chargeback costs, merchants that want to expand in Latin America must implement a payment provider with fraud prevention programs and risk analysis. Or even better: count on an expert partner to do that for them.

Here at PagSeguro, our Smart Fraud Prevention algorithms use machine learning from the more than 100 million transactions that we process yearly. Thus, we help you decrease fraud occurrences without harming the approval process for legitimate purchases.

Efficient customer service is essential

In the digital world, where everything is fast and at the palm of our hands, Customer Support has to follow your client’s expectations and needs. That’s why having customer service that works 24/7 is essential. Another detail you need to keep an eye on is having a support system or team in your customers' language.

Merchants using our Payment Processing solution can count on our Customer Support for their end-users in Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Turkish. Our expert multidisciplinary team works 24/7 to provide the best possible support for your clients through chat, email, and WhatsApp – the most popular messaging app in Latin America.

No hidden fees

One of the most important rules when choosing a payment provider is to know if the system has hidden fees. You need to have full knowledge of the percentage charged in every transaction and avoid any surprises that can overcome your budget in the future.

Different options for integration

Each type of company has its own needs, depending on business size, segment, etc. Thus, the best partner for you is one that has what your company requires, right?

We have a diversity of options for integrations, making expanding business in Latin America possible for companies of all sizes. Check them out:

• Payment Page: after choosing their products/services, your customer is redirected to our payment page to finish the purchase. This option requires minimum integration, and all sensitive data is handled and protected by us.

• Direct API: after choosing their products/services, your customer completes the purchase without leaving your store. In this option, you have complete control of your payment page and access to our tokenization support;

• E-commerce Plugins: easy and quick integration with the biggest e-commerce platforms, Woocommerce and Magento, with no API implementation required – simply install the plugin and start selling to Latam in a few minutes;

• Payment Link: Even without an e-commerce store, you can access the full potential of Latin American customers by creating and sending them payment links, where they can finish their purchases and pay with their preferred payment methods on our payment page. No integration or website is required.

The expertise you need to unlock Latin America

Now that you know how to choose the best payment provider to expand your business in Latin America, you are ready to take the next step. Here at PagSeguro, we have disruptive solutions to process and collect local payments in the region.

With PagSeguro Payment Processing Solution, you’ll be able to reach 17 Latin American countries and offer your customers over 140 local payment methods. So what about you get started right away with your Latam strategies? Click below to talk to us: