I’ve watched this play out more times than I can count. A global company enters Latin America, plugs in the same payment stack they use in Europe or the US, and can’t figure out why conversion rates are half of what they expected. Almost every time, the problem traces back to the same place: infrastructure that doesn’t match how people in LATAM actually pay.
The numbers make the opportunity clear. Cross-border e-commerce in the region hit $51.8 billion in 2023. More than half of Mexican and Brazilian consumers shopped cross-border in 2022. In Chile and Peru, that number was above 70%. The demand is there. The infrastructure gap is where most companies fall short.
The mistake is assuming a Visa or Mastercard integration covers the market. It doesn’t. Brazil has Pix and boleto. Mexico runs on SPEI and cash vouchers. Argentina has a deep installment culture. Colombia, Chile, Peru – each with their own methods, regulations, and settlement timelines. There is no single integration that covers all of this. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a shortcut that will cost you later.
Read the full article on → London Daily News