What can you tell us about the current cross-border payments landscape in Latin America/Brazil, given the rapid shift to digital payments and ecommerce that we’ve seen in 2020?
Rodrigo Sanchez Prandi: Latin America became the fastest-growing regional ecommerce market in 2020, overtaking, for the first time since 2010, the position historically held by Asia-Pacific. Alternative payment methods, such as instalments/BNPL have been essential to expanding in emerging markets for years now, but are currently gaining even more momentum. In terms of the payment landscape, 2020 has been revolutionary for Brazil. The first-ever instant payment system, PIX, was launched nationwide in November 2020. Also, e-wallets, as one of the fastest growing payment methods, have seen a massive growth in the region: Nequi (Colombia), MP, and pagbank (Brazil), are some examples. According to a Juniper Research study, half the world’s population will be using digital wallets by 2024.
BNPL plans are certainly trending too. Merchants benefit from higher average purchase prices, and consumers break up their purchases into instalment payments without the need for a credit card.
We are seeing that BNPL solutions across emerging markets are a great way not only to give credit to users that do not have access to a credit card, but also to reduce friction at checkout.
According to dLocal data, 54% of the ecommerce expenditure in 2020 in Brazil was made accessing an instalment plan offered by merchants. Does this percentage apply to both B2C and B2B transactions? Did you observe any differences between the two?
From our experience, we have seen that SMEs and individuals use instalments in a similar way. Instalments are part of the way of life in Brazil. Shoppers choose this payment method at electronics stores, retail outlets, and supermarkets.
Because this way of payment is already ingrained, it made the transition to instalment payments natural for ecommerce shoppers as well. It's also one of the main reasons we're seeing its mass adoption.
Recently, dLocal’s partnership with Dinie, an embedded lending platform, to provide BNPL services to Brazilian SMEs has been announced. On which business model it is based? How does the onboarding process look like for an SME customer who wants to get access to embedded lending?
Andrea Burattini: Onboarding is done at checkout. SME customers select Dinie Pay as a payment option and choose one of the instalment plans. First-time customers are asked to provide simple details about the business and owner (such as name, CNPJ, CPF, and monthly turnover) while eligibility and credit checks are running in the background. Later in the process, we ask users to upload KYC documents to verify the applicant’s identity.
If it’s a returning customer, performing another purchase only requires logging in with the Dinie credentials and digitally signing the loan contract.
Fintechs such as Affirm, Kueski or Addi are just a couple of examples of companies fuelling the BNPL space in LATAM. How does dLocal’s joint offering with Dinie differentiate from similar solutions in LATAM and internationally?
A.B.: We see many fintechs such as Affirm growing their user base in the consumer BNPL space, targeting young adults who prefer debit over credit cards and who want to buy something now, but lack the funds.
Dinie’s offering was designed for the needs of small businesses, allowing them to access financial services at the point of business and at the point of sale. This is our differentiator. Dinie BNPL is a natural extension of the credit products offered under Dinie’s single credit line. We focus on SMBs in Brazil (with the objective of further expanding to other LATAM markets) providing access to capital to allow for instalment purchases. We act as an alternative payment method within the dLocal Payment Gateway, leveraging the existing merchants’ integrations so that no additional effort is required from the merchant’s side to enable this financing option.
What is the profile of the target audience for the new BNPL solution? Given the potential for growth seen in the LATAM region, could you elaborate on the opportunities that dLocal and Dinie are offering to global merchants who provide this option to SMEs?
A.B.: We target entrepreneurs and small and medium companies that participate in the digital economy by selling online and purchasing digital services.
Opportunities for global merchants include:
Enable payment split into instalments for business buyers to serve a larger group of customers; an instalment plan can increase order value and conversion;
Improve SMB affordability for services at the point of purchase without the necessity of having a credit card;
Recover lost sales due to card rejection or boleto issues by giving the buyer another attempt to pay;
Incentivise customers to return. As instalments are repaid, the buyer’s available limit is increased, so they can purchase again.
We see a great opportunity for digital advertisers in Latin America. The global Internet ad spending market is expected to reach USD 360.8 Billion by 2027. Latin America is projected to grow at a CAGR of 9.7% over the analysis period 2020-2027 – which is above the global average of 7.7%.
Could you share with us if there are any plans for expanding this offering into other markets besides Brazil? If so, in what countries or regions will it be available?
R.S.P.: Our main goal is to enable ecommerce for international companies in emerging markets, benefitting from the innovations and new technologies offered in such regions. BNPL is surely one of those innovations that help the unbanked and the general public to access more ecommerce opportunities.
If there is something that characterises our growth, it’s our ability to identify similar needs in different regions. We are working in Brazil, but also in Mexico, Argentina, India, and South-East Asia with similar solutions. We have been offering BNPL solutions in India since the beginning of 2020, where the mass adoption of digital payments has been key to opening new financial instruments to the general population.
About Rodrigo Sanchez Prandi
Rodrigo is a passionate creator of innovative fintech products and solutions. In his role as SVP Product at dLocal, he is focused on building payment products that bridge the gap between the needs of financially underserved populations in emerging markets and those of leading global ecommerce players.
About dLocal
dLocal is the world’s leading payments processing company enabling global merchants to reach consumers in emerging markets. It’s 360 payments platform is designed to handle mass online payments in Latin America and other emerging countries across APAC, the Middle East, and Africa through one single API platform.
About Andrea Burattini
Andrea is the COO and founder of Dinie, responsible for implementing and running innovative financial services embedded into digital platforms, transforming SMEs’ relationship with credit. A tech entrepreneur with more than 10 years in financial services, having her first successful exit as co-founder of the fintech Vivere Brasil.
About Dinie
Dinie is a financial technology services company that offers innovative credit solutions to LATAM SMEs, embeddable into digital platforms where businesses are already integrated to. Dinie combines end-to-end lending with payment solutions to give SMEs seamless borrowing and paying experience.
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