While retail focuses on digital innovation, omnichannel promotions, and customer loyalty, a silent villain continues to drain companies' cash flow: poor cash management. It is estimated that Brazilian retail loses billions of reais per year due to failures, deviations, errors, and inefficiencies related to the flow of cash.
According to the World Bank, more than 38% of retail payments in Brazil are still made in cash — a rate that rises to over 60% in peripheral regions and inland areas. Despite the rise of PIX and digital wallets, cash 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 retail purchases at physical Point of Sale (POS) terminals, while digital payments made up only 3%. In 2024, digital payments accounted for 38%, while the use of cash and cards decreased to 62%. The projection for 2030 indicates that cash and cards will remain relevant, with a 47% share in physical points of sale.
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 strength, money still remains a significant part of everyday economy—especially in in-person retail segments.
In March 2025, the physical cash in circulation reached R$ 349.2 billion, of which R$ 340 billion in banknotes and R$ 8.4 billion in coins, according to the Central Bank. "It's not money itself that poses a risk, but the way it is managed. Retail needs to handle cash with the same intelligence and automation applied to digital channels," says Hailton Santos, commercial director of Sesami.www.sesami.io), a company that is a reference in effective and innovative solutions for security, productivity, and management in the retail, banking, and cash segments.
International studies indicate that cash shrinkage — that is, losses related to the handling and transportation of cash — accounts for between 0.3% and 0.7% of the annual revenue of retail chains. In a company that generates R$ 1 billion in revenue, this can mean up to R$ 7 million in annual loss, invisible to the manager's eyes.
The causes are diverse: human errors in counting and cash closing, lack of traceability by operator, insecure transportation of valuables between the store and the bank, and unproductive time of employees managing money manually.
Lossless smart solutionsSesami has technologies such as smart safes and recyclers that are changing the logic of brick-and-mortar retail. In an automated money management system, banknotes and coins are automatically counted and validated, generating a final report with all the amounts deposited throughout the day, optimizing the reconciliation process.
With the smart safe, the retailer ensures automatic money counting, monitors cash volume, and can integrate with cash transport companies. It performs banknote counting, rejects counterfeit bills, and issues reports with deposit data. The smart safe optimizes the team's time and helps improve cash management.
Cash automation is already standard in large global retailers. In Brazil, major networks in the supermarket, fashion, and pharmacy sectors have already begun this transformation with Sesami — optimizing time, security, and financial performance. "Today, the minimum cost for the retailer to control cash is around 20% (potentially reaching 50%). We are talking about, for every R$ 100 they have, R$ 20 spent to manage it. These include costs with treasury and cash transportation, for example. These are high costs for an operation in a sector where margins are small," says Santos.
Another safe and efficient way to handle money and eliminate cash discrepancies is the closed cash management cycle. It replaces the manual cash drawer of the cash register with a system that recycles and protects the money, from the moment it leaves the customer's hand until it reaches the counting center at the back.back office). The customer makes the payment directly on the device and receives their change, if any, automatically, in bills and/or coins. The treasury work will be the collection of the stored money at the end of the cash register's daily operation.
Benefits through software –All the benefits provided by Sesami's safes and recyclers are generated from the software developed by the company, Sesami Enterprise Software, which enables intelligent and real-time management of operations. With its modules, it enables business reports and analysis, data sharing and connectivity, monitoring and optimization of services, and end-to-end cash reconciliation.
