According to allpago research, Brazil has a distinct profile when it comes to online purchases. Credit card is still the preferred payment method for 69% of Brazilians and Boleto Bancário is a key alternative payment method for customers who buy online. Depending on the sector, it ranges from 18% to 37% of all online purchases.
Boleto Bancário is a payment slip issued through banks with all the relevant information for purchasing a product. Brazilian consumers use it to complete online purchases via their online banking system, ATM, post office, lottery agent, supermarkets or by paying directly at the counter of any given bank. Boletos have due dates up to which payment is possible. In ecommerce, due dates of 2 to 3 days are common and the clearing by the bank takes D+1.
Boleto Bancário positions itself as the most relevant alternative payment method as it enables both payments through your bank account and cash payments. . Therefore, most of B2B payments are done through Boleto. Furthermore, Boleto works like a cash payment that allows customers who don’t have a credit card or are unable to make successful debits to buy online. 4 out of 10 customers that are unbanked have done online purchases thanks to the payment method.
As Boleto targets a complete new portion of the market, this payment method doesn’t cannibalize the credit card payment option. allpago’s merchants have registered 20-40% additional revenues by introducing Boleto as a complementary payment method. allpago figures show that around 50% of the issued Boletos are paid. Being partly an offline payment due to the interruption of the consumer impulse, the method accounts, on average, for around 24% of the market share and, in industries with higher ticket sizes as software, marketing and ticketing, it is preferred by Brazilian customers as it is considered a safer payment method.
Additional advantages of the method include the fact that it makes fraud virtually impossible. However, refunds can become problematic. As the Boleto is only a payment slip, once the customer completes the payment, the merchant can only refund the customer via bank transfer. Until now refunds would be done manually. Merchants need to first gather the customer data, search the respective transaction and relate the refund to the issued Boleto. One of main problems consists in matching the correct CPF number, Brazilian tax registration number, with the bank account holder. In order to succeed with the Boleto Refund, all data from the bank holder should be correct. The customer data can only be checked after the transaction is completed, which means that the operation is subject to significant errors, payment failures and rework in a significant number of cases.
allpago has now developed a convenient and pioneering automated solution in order to solve the matter, the automated Boleto Refund. The one step operation asks only for the customer bank data when submitting the refund to the system and includes automated check of the data. The refund is performed within 5 business days, which ensures full final customer satisfaction and saves merchant time and resources.
allpago is constantly monitoring LATAM market moves and mapping points of improvement regarding its operation purposing to offer a robust and leader solution to international companies interested in accessing the potential of a USD 45 billion market, growing on average 20% per year.
About the author
Javier Vallaure, Director Business Development of allpago international, holds a Douple Diploma from Universidad Pontificia Comillas and Reims Management School as well as a MBA from ESMT. Prior to allpago, he worked as an analyst for Morgan Stanley in London and in property asset management at Grupo Lar in Mexico.
Company description
allpago international provides a full spectrum of payment services in the LATAM region. allpago works as a payment gateway, a white label payment service provider (PSP) or a product and service reseller for merchants and payment service providers interested in the LATAM markets.
allpago‘s features include one-click payments, recurring payments and installments. Furthermore, the company offers a fully-integrated Risk-Management Solution as well as a Business Intelligence Platform with user rights management and user-logs. Level One PCI DSS Certification guarantees the highest levels of security and safety.
Current clients include Art.com, Busuu.com, McAfee, Teamviewer, Twoo.com and many other leading payment or digital companies.
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