Card-Only Checkout Faces Growing Challenges as Alternative Payments Expand

Card-Only Checkout strategies are facing growing challenges in Latin America as consumers increasingly use wallets, instant payments and bank transfers. Executives from dLocal and ACI Worldwide argue that merchants need to adapt their payment strategies to local preferences to avoid limiting conversion opportunities.

Horacio Raviolo, head of commercial partnerships at dLocal, and Vlademir Santos, head of Brazil at ACI Worldwide, shared their views with The Fintech Times on payment fragmentation, Pix, fraud and the expansion of alternative payment methods across the region.

Local payment methods are becoming essential

According to Raviolo, card-first strategies have persisted largely because merchants are accustomed to card infrastructure, which is familiar and relatively straightforward to scale internationally. However, Latin America is not a single payments market.

Wallets, real-time transfers and bank transfers now represent around half of online transactions across the region and are already dominant in several countries. For merchants, relying exclusively on cards can mean excluding consumers who prefer or depend on local payment methods.

Raviolo describes this as “lost customers at checkout”, noting that offering familiar payment options can strengthen trust and support conversion and revenue. The companies also report that 96 per cent of merchants using multiple acquirers report higher revenue, while nearly two-thirds identify payment flexibility as a key growth driver.

The challenge is that payment preferences, regulations and operating requirements vary considerably between countries. Raviolo highlights the differences between Brazil's instant-payments ecosystem and Colombia's bank-transfer-led e-commerce market.

“Connectivity gets a merchant to a method. Genuine local expertise makes that method perform.”

dLocal and ACI Worldwide expand local payment access

The partnership between dLocal and ACI Worldwide allows merchants and payment providers to connect to multiple local payment methods through a single integration into the ACI Payments Orchestration Platform.

At launch, the solution covers:

• Brazil: Pix, PicPay and Mercado Pago
• Mexico: Mercado Pago, OXXO and SPEI

Merchants can already onboard and process transactions in both markets.

dLocal provides local payment connectivity and market expertise, while ACI's orchestration layer manages routing, fraud prevention and payments intelligence. Merchants maintain control over the methods they offer, transaction routing and their overall payments strategy.

Pix shows how quickly payment behaviour can change

Both executives pointed to Pix as an example of the impact local payment infrastructure can have. Brazil's instant-payment system now has more than 170 million users and reaches around 95 per cent of the country's adult population.

Raviolo highlights Pix's immediate confirmation, 24/7 availability and familiar experience through banking and wallet applications. For him, its growth demonstrates that accessible and interoperable payment rails can become mainstream infrastructure.

Santos similarly argues that Pix shows how quickly consumer behaviour can change when a payment method removes friction and reflects how people want to pay.

The lesson for merchants is to look beyond global card brands and consider the payment methods consumers already trust. Santos says merchants that have not prioritised Pix are “leaving conversion on the table”.

Expansion brings new markets and new challenges

The partnership currently covers Brazil and Mexico, with Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru planned for the next phase. No date has yet been announced for that expansion.

Santos cautions that Brazil and Mexico cannot simply serve as templates for these markets because each has its own payment culture. Colombia, for example, already relies heavily on account-to-account transfers for e-commerce.

At the same time, adding local payment methods requires appropriate fraud controls and transaction intelligence. Raviolo says merchants should treat payment selection as both a conversion and risk-management decision.

Looking three years ahead, Santos expects alternative payment methods to continue gaining share as more consumers come online. Cards will remain part of the mix, but merchants that treat local methods as complementary rather than secondary will be better positioned to capture digital commerce growth.

He also expects payment orchestration to become increasingly standard as merchants seek to enter new markets and add payment methods without rebuilding their infrastructure each time.