The fintech ecosystem is booming in Brazil. According to the study ‘Fintech in Latin America and the Caribbean – a consolidated ecosystem with potential to contribute to regional financial inclusion,’ published in June this year by the IDB, Brazil is the country with the most platforms of this type in Latin America, accounting for 24% of the total. Additionally, 21% of them are in the payments vertical; 19% in loans; and 13% in business financial management. Furthermore, the 2023 ‘Fintech Deep Dive’ research by PwC indicates that only 6% of fintechs currently focus exclusively on B2C, offering solutions for end consumers, which suggests a market potential ready to be explored.
Attentive to this trend, some companies have already begun offering payment solutions to customers, blending technology with financial services: Vivo, through Vivo Pay, recently received authorization from the Central Bank to operate as a credit fintech – previously, the service was called Vivo Money and included loan services; meanwhile, Natura is gaining market share with Emana Pay, used to meet the financial and payment solution needs of the group’s consultants.
In this scenario where various companies and retailers have outpaced banks, many sectors can offer financial solutions directly to customers, facilitating transactions and improving the purchasing journey with more personalization, in a movement called embedded finance, when originally non-financial companies begin offering such services. An estimate by Deloitte, a consulting, auditing, and management firm, showed that by 2026, embedded services are expected to generate revenue of R$24 billion, with retail, consumer goods, and other services standing out, accounting for over 35% of GDP. With more and more companies and retailers transforming into fintechs in this boom of opportunities, payment solution platforms can act as intermediaries between companies and customers by offering a complete structure for embedded finance.
This is the case of RPE – Retail Payment Ecosystem, which has been working to consolidate embedded financial services in segments beyond traditional retail, encompassing various clients looking to diversify their revenue streams. Today, some of the clients already benefiting from RPE – Retail Payment Ecosystem’s services include Grupo Pereira, a retailer operating in five states and the Federal District; MartMinas, a wholesale network; Condor, a supermarket chain; Tenda Atacado, a self-service retail segment; Cassol; Lojas Torra, a fashion retail network; and Avenida.
Pedro Albuquerque, co-founder and Director of New Business at RPE, comments that, in general, some companies are unaware that they too can benefit from this market. ‘There is a difference between embedding finance in retail companies and in companies from other segments that are also retailers. It’s easier for me to tell a supermarket that it can offer a card to its customers than to tell a cosmetics store, but both can and benefit from it,’ he analyzes. According to him, what other sectors lack is a bit more maturity to understand the benefits of starting in embedded finance, knowing the necessary investment, and how much more loyal the customer will actually become after hiring an embedded financial service.
‘At RPE, we focus on payment solutions for retailers across various segments. If a retailer has an e-commerce platform, they can use our tool to better understand their customers. With it, they can offer a more digitized purchasing journey. Whether they have e-commerce or not, the retailer can also offer pre-approved credit to a specific customer profile, identified through their own CRM tools alongside RPE’s payment journey tools. For example, if a consumer clicks on a specific blue blouse model at a certain price, multiple pieces of information about their interest in the product will be triggered. When they enter a physical store, pick up a product, scan it, and put it back on the shelf, they also spread various pieces of information about their purchasing behavior—data that can be collected and analyzed with the retailer’s CRM tools. Among this distributed data is also payment data, i.e., how the customer behaves at checkout. This is where RPE comes in, bringing technology and a fluid journey for the customer to complete their purchase. So, what happens is the union of the customer’s CRM tools with RPE’s payment journey tools. This way, the purchase ensures greater customer loyalty and drives retail sales, generating profitability for the retailer,’ explains Pedro, noting that this data is still in its early stages of use by Brazilian retailers.
The expert cites credit cards as another important tool for customer loyalty, helping to understand their purchasing behavior and deliver the best possible solution for their needs. ‘Purchases with the card provide additional information that the retailer can use to tailor offers more precisely to what the consumer needs, leveraging data intelligence. If the retailer doesn’t have their own card, they lack this information, so having their own financial service ensures greater autonomy and is another way to boost business profitability,’ reiterates the expert, emphasizing that offering proprietary financial services is a scalable opportunity.
‘The first step a retailer can take is to understand the business model and offer their own card. Later, they can offer a cardless journey, transacting with biometrics, for example, adding more security and digitization to the process,’ adds Pedro.
‘RPE’s solutions are hosted on cloud servers, ensuring scalability and security during peak periods like Black Friday and Christmas, when transaction volumes grow exponentially and retailers cannot afford performance or quality losses, especially in purchasing and payment journeys, so they can continue serving customers as expected,’ he concludes.
