It is time to bust the myth that “B2B companies aren’t ready for e-commerce.” In fact, corporate buyers rely on digital and remote channels throughout their purchasing journey.
In Brazil, the B2B e-commerce market share has increased more than 60% after the pandemic, and many businesses have learned they can rely on e-commerce and digital payments for continued revenue growth – this is what we call the digital payment revolution.
The internet is the most important invention that has revolutionized the latest century. It has changed business, government, the healthcare system, education, and human interaction, and we can say it has dramatically changed our everyday life.
Here we are, a couple of decades since the rise of the global internet, and the worldwide web revolution continues to live on. If we’ve changed the way we interact with fellow humans, it comes as no surprise we would change the way we pay for things and deal with our finances.
When Finance and Technology Meet
FinTech, by Investopedia’s definition, is “
Read more: The Future of the Payment Industry in Brazil is Digital
Fintech businesses, in practice, are the most disruptive innovations and eventually challenge the traditional financial system by being more nimble, providing faster and more efficient services, and sometimes, replacing the middle man.
The transformation has hit the B2B segment too – fintech is changing how B2B companies pay for their services and goods, and ultimately, how they run the show.
How Fintech Has Changed B2B Global Payments
Before we talk about the B2B landscape in Brazil, we’ve wrapped up the way fintech businesses are transforming the business-to-business payment realm.
- Instant global payments
Some businesses still use traditional payment methods such as checks and the traditional boleto bancário in Brazil, but some of them are easier to fraud. In some cases, however, when boleto bancário is aligned with instant payment methods, such as Pix, it can be successful and it dicreases the chances of forgery.
In our case study about the giant in-game Xsolla, the company doubled its conversion rate after switching to our exclusive Boleto Flash®, PagBrasil’s digital alternative to the traditional boleto.
You can run a multinational company, operate your business in different locations, and make global payments as if you were lodging a payment directly into the payee’s bank account, without the need to rely on these “old school” methods.
Read more: Pix 2022: What to Expect from Brazil’s Newest Payment Method
- Real-time fraud prevention
Fraud has always been a significant threat to B2B payments. What contributes to this statistic is the use of traditional payment methods such as boleto and credit cards , that are more prone to forgery – Brazil is one of the top 10 countries in the world with high credit card fraud rates.
A core part of the new wave of fintech solutions is automated fraud detection. PagBrasil’s PagShield® is state-of-the-art fraud prevention, a unique technology tailored to the particularities of the Brazilian market, often overlooked by multinational fraud prevention service providers.
- Transparency
Now, thanks to digital payments, both payer and payee can track the movement of money from the second it’s sent to when it arrives – which is not often the case with some traditional payment methods.
At PagBrasil, there’s no “bait-and-surcharge” kind of thing. With a policy of transparent fees, the cross-border merchant operating in Brazil will pay exactly what they’ve been told and never be surprised by hidden fees, inflated currency conversion rates, or anything of this sort.
- Reduced risks and costs
We take transparency very seriously here. As opposed to what many companies do by hiding fees within the mark-up FX fee or which exchange bank rate they use (for the foreign exchange rate, for example, we work with a clear source of interbank rate), all fees at PagBrasil are explained and cleared with our customers right from the beginning.
Read more: Brazil in 2022 – An Overview of the Market
- Application programming interface (API) integration
B2B businesses can start to receive their payments right from the get-go. The API integration removes the friction and layers of complexity from the traditional payment cycle, as it cuts off the need for several systems to communicate with each other.
Through an API system, the cross-border merchant can even use a payment link via API without any technical integration. The Payment Link, for instance, takes your customers to a secure payment page to pay a specific transaction.
The B2B e-commerce landscape in Brazil
The B2B e-commerce market is expanding globally. In Brazil, the market share has increased more than 60% since the pandemic, according to McKinsey.
B2B giants such as Ambev (AB Inbev), P&G and Unilever operating in the country are going digital too, breaking the myths that “B2B companies aren’t ready for e-commerce.” For instance, Ambev has made tech investments and launched side projects such as the delivery app Zé Delivery (B2C deliveries), BEES (B2B), and Donus (Fintech for B2B partners).
The myth that buyers aren’t “ready” is due for a rest. In fact, corporate buyers rely on digital and remote channels throughout their purchasing journey. Moving from in-person interactions, face-to-face negotiations to a digital business is the direction that all businesses are taking.
For the cross-border merchant getting ready to find fertile ground in lavish green Brazilian territory, the main challenge is to find a trustworthy partner, who understands the hurdles and specificities of the Brazilian market, and who offers a broad set of payment alternatives.
Read more: From Streaming to SaaS: Why Subscription Payment Model is Set to Skyrocket in Brazil
PagBrasil has been on the market for 20+ years, helping multinational companies to run a hassle-free digital business in Brazil – from offering alternative payment methods to flexible integrating solutions that have been helping companies double their conversion. Get in touch with our team today and learn more.