Payment Glitches Stall Brazil’s Mobile Shopping Surge

In Brazil, consumers are highly engaged digitally, yet they struggle with completing transactions.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Global Digital Shopping Index: Brazil Edition,” commissioned by Visa Acceptance Solutions, found that Brazilian consumers ranked near the top globally in mobile shopping engagement, leading in the use of smartphones for in-store shopping.

The report revealed that 61% of consumers in Brazil used a phone for their latest retail purchase, encompassing online and in-store transactions. This represented a 10% increase since 2022 and positioned Brazil ahead of traditional economies like the United States and the United Kingdom in the shift from computers to phones for digital shopping.

This mobile-first trend spanned demographics, with nearly half of older Brazilian shoppers (baby boomers and seniors) mobile-first, and 2 in 3 parents with children under their care shopping via mobile for their latest purchase.

Furthermore, Brazilians made 36% of their latest retail purchases in-store using their phones, the highest rate observed in the study. They primarily used their devices for price comparison, product information and payment-related checks. This high engagement extended beyond purchases to “digital window shopping,” with Brazilians browsing or researching products on their phones more frequently than the global average.

Delving Into the Pain Points

However, this picture of high digital engagement was marred by pervasive payment-related friction. The report found that 99% of consumers in Brazil reported experiencing at least one type of payment issue during their latest retail purchase. This level of friction was higher than the global average. Just 1.5% of Brazilian shoppers reported that their most recent purchase went completely smoothly, in contrast to the 61% global average.

The most common issues cited were payment processing errors and friction, reported by 67% of Brazilian shoppers. Within this category, declined payments represented the bulk of these responses, occurring in 63% of transactions. This high rate of payment failure led to frustrated customers and lost sales.

Beyond processing issues, Brazilian shoppers also exhibited behavior in online transactions that added friction. They were 1.5 times more likely than the global average to manually enter their payment information for online purchases, with 32% doing so for their latest transaction compared to the 21% global average. Manual entry is time-consuming and prone to errors.

Room for More Stored Credentials

Conversely, the use of stored credentials for online purchases was lower in Brazil (33%) compared to the global average (54%). When Brazilians did store credentials, they were less likely to store them with the merchant (26%) compared to the global average (45%). Consumer concerns about storing credentials with merchants primarily revolved around data security and privacy (60%) and trust in the merchant (30%). This indicated a need for merchants and payment providers to build trust and demonstrate robust security practices.

Compounding these payment challenges was a gap in cross-channel shopping capabilities. While 51% of Brazilian shoppers expressed interest in using cross-channel features at their last shopped merchant, 33% wanted to use it but found it was not available — the highest percentage among the surveyed countries. This consumer demand was not being met by merchants, as only 45% reported offering cross-channel shopping capabilities.

For financial services and payments professionals, this presents an opportunity to address the pervasive payment friction in Brazil. Investing in technologies and solutions to ensure seamless payment processing is needed to drive sales growth and stay competitive.