While retail focuses on digital innovation, omnichannel promotions, and customer loyalty, a silent villain continues to bleed company cash flows: poor cash management. It is estimated that Brazilian retailers lose billions of reais annually due to failures, diversions, errors, and inefficiencies related to physical cash flow.
According to the World Bank, over 38% of payments in Brazilian retail are still made in cash—a figure that rises to over 60% in peripheral and rural regions. Despite the rise of PIX and digital wallets, paper money remains an operational reality for thousands of brick-and-mortar stores.
The Global Payments Report 2025 by WorldPay shows that in 2014, cash and cards accounted for 97% of purchases in physical Points of Sale (POS), while digital payments represented only 3%. By 2024, digital payments increased to account for 38%, while cash and card usage fell to 62%. The projection for 2030 indicates that cash and cards will remain relevant, with a 47% share in physical POS.
The number of banknotes in circulation at the end of 2024 was 7.72 billion, the highest volume since 2020. In 2024, only 22% of purchases in Brazil were made in cash, while the rest were made with cards, PIX, and other electronic means. But although PIX has gained traction, cash remains a relevant part of everyday transactions—especially in in-person retail segments.
In March 2025, physical cash in circulation reached R$ 349.2 billion, of which R$ 340 billion were banknotes and R$ 8.4 billion in coins, according to the Central Bank. ‘The issue is not cash itself but how it is managed. Retailers must handle cash with the same intelligence and automation applied to digital channels,’ says Hailton Santos, Commercial Director at Sesami (www.sesami.io), a company that is a leader in effective and innovative solutions for security, productivity, and management in retail, banking, and cash sectors.
International studies indicate that cash shrinkage—losses related to cash handling and transportation—represents between 0.3% and 0.7% of retailers’ annual revenue. For a company earning R$ 1 billion, this could mean up to R$ 7 million in annual losses, invisible to managers.
The causes are varied: human errors in cash counting and closing, lack of traceability by operator, unsafe transportation of cash between store and bank, and unproductive time spent by employees manually managing cash.
Smart, loss-free solutions – Sesami has technologies such as smart safes and cash recyclers that are changing the logic of in-person retail. In an automated cash management system, banknotes and coins are automatically counted and validated, generating a final report with all deposited values throughout the day, optimizing the reconciliation process.
With the smart safe, retailers ensure automatic cash counting, monitor cash volumes, and can integrate with cash transport companies. It counts bills, rejects counterfeit notes, and generates deposit reports, optimizing staff time and improving cash management.
Cash automation is already standard among major global retailers. In Brazil, large supermarket chains, fashion retailers, and pharmacies have begun this transformation with Sesami—optimizing time, security, and financial performance. ‘Today, the minimum cost for a retailer to control cash is around 20% (and can reach 50%). For every R$ 100 they have, R$ 20 is spent managing it—this includes treasury and cash transportation costs, for example. These are high costs for an industry with thin margins,’ says Santos.
Another safe and efficient way to handle cash and eliminate discrepancies is the closed-loop cash management system. It replaces a manual cash drawer with a solution that recycles and protects cash from the moment it leaves the customer’s hands until it reaches the back-office counting center (backoffice). The customer makes the payment directly at the device and automatically receives change, if applicable, in bills and/or coins. The treasury team’s task is to collect the stored cash at the end of the day’s operations.
Benefits through software – All the benefits provided by Sesami’s safes and recyclers are generated by the company’s software, Sesami Enterprise Software, which enables intelligent, real-time operation management. With its modules, it allows business reporting and analytics, data sharing and connectivity, service monitoring and optimization, and end-to-end cash reconciliation.
