Around the globe, companies need to respond to the upmost urgent concerns from employees, suppliers, and customers. In the current environment, the extreme but necessary health measures are changing consumer habits and behavior, and pushing merchants off a cliff – either they dive or crash.
The importance of cash payments in LATAM
In a region such as Latin America, where the financial inclusion rate is still low, cash payments are still of the most relevance as it allows everyone to participate in the day-to-day society: cash is a legal tender, it’s tangible and reliable, it’s easy to use, and it’s an immediate transfer of value.
According to Global Cash Report, in Latin America Currency in Circulation (CiC) has increased over the last years:
- A growth of close to or over 30%, with Argentina reaching 150%
- The growth CiC ration versus GDP is positive for most countries
- ATMs coverage improvement
Altogether, the above-mentioned figures reveal the importance cash has in Latin American markets. But, given the restrictions imposed by Coronavirus, cash has become a constraint.
So, how can merchants overcome this and keep on selling?
Alternative payments are key to keep on selling
Perhaps the Coronavirus pandemic crisis has precipitated the need for both companies and consumers to adopt alternative payment methods, and showing that it’s inevitable. Time will tell.
The fact is that it’s crucial for companies and local business to provide customers with a range (the wider the better) of cashless payment solutions, such as bank transfer and e-wallets.
As Latin America is a fragmented set of countries, each with its own particularities, alternative payment methods differ from market to market: in Colombia there’s Efecty and Via Baloto, in Brazil there’s Boleto, and in Mexico there’s Oxxo, to name a few.
So, how to quickly and effectively adopt payment methods for your business?
How to connect your business to a wide range of payments
In a race against time, merchants cannot afford to disperse and should establish partnerships that leverage their sales. Regardless the line of business and its location, BoaCompra will help you integrate payment solutions that meet the consumers’ needs, as it covers over 140 different payment methods across all major countries in Latin America and Southern Europe.
Check the table for the available payment methods in LATAM markets during the Coronavirus outbreak:
If you are adopting alternative payment methods as a short-term measure, consider adding them permanently to your business payment solutions range. It just takes one simple integration that covers all markets, and by using MyAccount at BoaCompra platform, merchants can enable and disable local payment methods by themselves.
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