The arrival of Pix (Brazil's instant payment system) in 2025 has reignited attention on the role of payment infrastructure in Brazilian e-commerce. This innovation demonstrates the accelerated pace of innovation in the sector and highlights how seemingly technical changes directly affect the consumer experience. According to the Central Bank of Brazil, Pix already has over 165 million users and exceeds 3.5 billion monthly transactions, consolidating itself as one of the public's preferred methods, a context that makes it even clearer how any evolution in payment methods impacts digital retail. However, more than highlighting a new method, this movement shows that the payment gateway has become an essential part of the brand strategy, conversion rate, and credibility of online stores.
Digital retail has evolved in terms of customer service, logistics, and communication, but checkout remains one of the most critical points in the journey. It's at the moment of payment that the consumer makes the final assessment of trustworthiness and convenience. If the process seems insecure, limited, slow, or incompatible with the customer's preferred methods, the friction immediately translates into cart abandonment, even when the rest of the journey went well. This effect is even more pronounced in a mobile environment, which already accounts for more than 60% of online purchases in the country, according to data from Ebit | Nielsen, where any redirection or freeze results in immediate abandonment.
Modern payment gateways are no longer mere integrations. They concentrate strategic data on approval rates, rejection rates, purchasing behavior, and the performance of each method, offering visibility that was previously tied to acquirers or scattered across parallel systems. This information directly impacts marketing and performance decisions: it reveals bottlenecks, adjusts conversion expectations, helps calibrate campaigns, and allows for more realistic funnel analyses. Market performance studies released by acquirers such as Cielo, Stone, and Getnet, as well as technical surveys by Abecs, show that the difference between an optimized payment infrastructure and one without any adjustments can reach up to 15% in the approval rate of card transactions, an impact that completely changes the outcome of digital campaigns.
At the same time, the choice of provider communicates positioning. Platform compatibility, fees, anti-fraud mechanisms, and the variety of accepted methods influence both the operation and the consumer's perception. In a country where credit cards, bank slips, Pix (Brazil's instant payment system), digital wallets, and payment links coexist in the same shopping cart, limiting options means losing potential sales. And the checkout's visual appearance itself reinforces credibility the moment the consumer decides to buy. This trust reduces anxiety and increases the efficiency of media investment, since fewer customers abandon their purchases at the final stage.
On mobile, this impact intensifies. Since a large portion of purchases occur via smartphone, recent features like Pix (Brazil's instant payment system) increase expectations for speed and simplicity. But these only fully deliver when supported by a modern, stable, and well-integrated infrastructure. Innovation appears on the surface, but what sustains a good experience is the gateway.
Given this reality, it is crucial that managers rigorously review their payment providers. It is necessary to evaluate costs, accepted methods, settlement times, and, most importantly, access to transactional data that can be used in marketing. But improving the infrastructure is not enough: the consumer needs to perceive it. Clear messages about security and speed, and the presence of reliable visual elements at checkout, reinforce the feeling that the brand offers a consistent and professional experience.
The debate surrounding Pix (Brazil's instant payment system) reinforces the direction the market is heading and connects all these points. Payment infrastructure has ceased to be a distant layer of strategy and has begun to directly influence competitiveness, conversion, and brand perception. As new technologies emerge and the pressure for efficiency increases, decisions that were once seen as merely technical now shape business outcomes. Brands that understand this shift and integrate payment into the core of the digital experience will have a greater capacity to transform innovation into a real advantage in Brazilian e-commerce.
Alan Ribeiro, an expert in e-commerce and customer experience, has spent over a decade analyzing digital strategies and monitoring online retail trends. He dedicates himself to studying how technology, purchasing behavior, and operational efficiency can transform results and build customer loyalty in the virtual environment.
