PayRetailers is a rapidly growing financial technology company that is revolutionising the payment service provider sector as well as promoting fintech in Latin America. The company helps businesses to create local commerce experiences working in partnership with its clients, eliminating the operational complexities in the management of cross border payments.
In part due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on consumer habits, consumption is becoming digitised across Latin America. At the same time, infrastructure continues to improve, alongside increased financial access and even connection to the internet. This creates new opportunities for businesses however, to fully capitalise on this opportunity it is crucial for these businesses to understand the local payment preferences.
Jose Marti recently joined PayRetailers as head of global sales – overseeing the sales side for any new partnering merchants. The Fintech Times sat down with him to learn more about the Latin American market and how PayRetailers helps merchants understand the local space.
Cards are not the most popular method used by Latin Americans to make their online purchases. In fact, they are used to paying for their daily cost via bank transfers, cash vouchers and local digital wallets,” said Jose.
“These are the methods that people want to use to acquire services and goods in the online world, with 25% of online purchases paid for in cash. Therefore being able to offer these local payments is the key to successfully growing a business in the region. That’s where PayRetailers comes in.”
PayRetailers is something of an expert in Latin American dealings. With the slogan ‘Your payment processor in Latin America’, the company provides one-of-a-kind market expertise via a single API. With 250 alternative payment options in 12 different LatAm countries, they are the single point of contact for 90% of the payments sector.
“PayRetailers was born in Barcelona in 2017,” said Jose. “The company detected a difficulty across the whole of Latin America for a major section of the population to access financial products in order to manage their day-to-day needs. The objective was clear: to develop an online payment proposal that would allow global companies to connect with their potential clients and consumers within Latin America, via a secure, convenient and accessible payment network.”
Since then, PayRetailers developed a successful formula designed especially for the Latin American market and has seen exponential growth in the sector. With a local presence in both Europe and LatAm, they pride themselves on key partnerships that help them to accompany merchants from all over the world in the growth of their business in Latin America.
Jose said, “Our diverse and multidisciplinary team shares the same ideals: we believe that all people who are ‘unbanked’ – or are ‘precariously’ banked, have the right to access the financial products and services that allow them to satisfy their daily needs to make payments and have access to products and services from large companies. Thanks to the development of e-commerce that has broken down borders, financial inclusion and technology will be the keys to continuing to reduce poverty and driving prosperity in Latin America.”
Importance of Industry events
With the world slowly getting back to normal, industry events are back in the calendar, with PayRetailers getting back in action meeting people face to face at IFX in Dubai, Money20/20 in Las Vegas and iFX in Cyprus to name just a few.
For Jose, these events are key for networking and informing potential merchants what they have on offer.
He said: “It’s always great to attend events and meet new people – it’s crazy to think about the events that I’ve been to where there are lines of people waiting to speak to us.
“We have our sales team informing new and potential merchants of our offerings, and our account management team offering support to our existing customers. Our motto tends to bring people to our booth and gets us a lot of attention – we had 60 meetings over 3 days at iFX alone.
“I love going to events to meet people and connect to companies that want to go into LatAm. These events are so important as not only do we get to network, but also understand the difficulties of merchants in entering the Latin American market. We often find they’ve been too scared or don’t know much about the market – and we always tell them we can take care of it easily. It’s always refreshing to see their faces, it’s a different feeling when you have these conversations in person.”
Looking ahead
In terms of expanding, PayRetailers are always going to specialise in Latin America, planning to extensively grow in the region.
“This market is one where things change quite quickly, so to ensure we stay on top of things we need to grow locally, though our expertise is of course cross border payments,” said Jose.
“If you are accepting payment options in LatAm and you’re not there it can be difficult. With PayRetailers providing the local knowledge, we stand out from the rest of the market. We’re one of the only companies who has a combination of EU and LatAm talent, and we’re managing things with teams on the ground in the actual countries, not just sitting back in Europe.
“Yes, it’s a complex and difficult market but partnering with PayRetailers allows you to forget about those difficulties. Knowing that the payment provider has local expertise, local presence and understands the market very well not only helps you grow in the region but also gives you peace of mind.
“Ultimately, we are your payment processor in Latin America,” Jose concluded.
