La experiencia del usuario en el momento de la compra es todo», repite como un mantra el responsable de Mercado Pago, Gustavo Degeronimi. Esa plataforma de Mercado Libre, similar a Paypal, pero que permite pagar con tarjetas de crédito locales en un pago o en cuotas, se lanzó en Uruguay hace menos de tres semanas y ya fue utilizada en el 30% de las compras realizadas en el sitio.
This is a record adoption rate, according to Degeronimi, since in other markets, such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela and Peru - where the platform already operates - it took seven months to reach an adoption rate of over 10%, something that was achieved in Uruguay in seven days.
According to El Perfil del Internauta Uruguayo, 36% of e-commerce transactions are purchases in Mercado Libre.
The platform solves one of the main problems of Uruguayan e-commerce, as the president of the Digital Economy Chamber, Marcelo Montado, readily admits. While Mercado Libre's service allows credit card data to be saved and payments to be processed from the same site, Uruguayan e-commerce companies have to settle for referring consumers to the sites of the seals (Visa, Oca, Master Card, Diners, among others) and asking for data to process payments over and over again.
Not only does that result in a poor experience that leads to low conversion rates, according to Montado, but it also leads to other problems that make it difficult for e-commerce to take off.
According to the president of the Chamber of Digital Economy, the problem lies in the impossibility of local sites, or payment gateways such as Pagos Web and Cobros Ya (companies that integrate the various seals on the merchant's website) to store sensitive card data, something that can only be done by those who have the PCI certification (Payment Card Industry Security Standards) required by the international card council, and whose cost starts at US$ 200 thousand but can easily exceed US$ 1 million, depending on the size of the site.
The seals say that e-commerce sites should pay for such certification to improve their web experience; merchants, meanwhile, argue that they cannot do so and ask the seals to improve their platforms to make them more user-friendly.
Pero, ¿cuán importante es pagar en el propio sitio de comercio electrónico? El responsable de Mercado Pago es categórico: «Cada clic que se haga de más dificulta la concreción de la compra». Asegura que «muchos dejan de comprar porque se cansan en el medio, o porque empezó el programa de tele que les gusta, y por otras mil razones».
En Mercado Pago (que cuenta con certificación PCI) los usuarios cargan los datos de la tarjeta una vez y luego pueden volver a comprar con un solo clic. Para Degeronimi, esto «es la diferencia entre cerrar una transacción arriba del ómnibus o que el cliente la postergue para cuando llegue a su casa y termine no comprando nunca».
When online is complicated
Beyond the user experience, relying on stamp platforms creates other problems for e-commerce. For example, because the data is loaded off-site, directly into the seal, e-commerce cannot know which bank's card was used to pay. For this reason, promotions for bank customers, which are commonplace in traditional commerce, face a technical limitation in online commerce.
El director de Pagos Web, Carlos Caetano, dijo que para algunos clientes «es mucho mejor comprar en el comercio físico porque tienen un descuento que en algunas webs no existe». Según pudo saber Café & Negocios, los sitios que ofrecen este tipo de beneficios no tienen forma de verificar automáticamente que se pagó con una tarjeta de un banco determinado, por lo que deben llevar adelante procesos manuales que hacen más difícil la tarea de mantener un sitio de comercio electrónico.
Por su parte, el gerente financiero de Visanet Uruguay, Juan Carlos Grosso, dijo que Visa incluirá «en un futuro muy cercano» la posibilidad de reconocer la tarjeta de modo que los comercios puedan ofrecer este tipo de promociones con mayor facilidad. Otro problema operativo que sufren los comercios electrónicos es la imposibilidad de hacer devoluciones automáticas. Según explicó el gerente de Servicios de la integradora de pagos Cobros Ya, Juan Carlos Corazzo, «si un cliente compra un producto o servicio y, por la razón que sea, el comercio no lo puede entregar, la cancelación de esta transacción es manual, desde la web del sello o a través de un mail, pero requiere que haya una persona procesando esa cancelación, que, aunque es inmediata y el cliente no se entera», supone un costo mayor para el comercio.
Little, but growing
According to the latest survey of the Profile of the Uruguayan Internet user, prepared by Grupo Radar and published last week, during the last year almost 1.3 million Uruguayans (66% of Internet users over 18 years old) made a web purchase.
This data, which Grupo Radar arrived at from a sample, estimates that e-commerce moves US$100 million a month. However, it is difficult to know how much of this is processed through local cards.
This includes payments on foreign sites (Amazon, Ali Express and Ebay are the favorites), or services that although consumed in Uruguay, are processed outside the country (such as Uber, Netflix, among others). In turn, cards participate in 45% of online payments.
Moreover, considering that e-commerce is only 3% of total commerce, the importance of this incipient industry for the labels is even lower.
However, the financial manager of Visanet Uruguay said that compared to last year, 78% more transactions were recorded. That label made an agreement with PedidosYa! that allowed the delivery site to offer payments through its platform (see separate).
OCA's head of technological business, Pedro Carriquiry, said that 6.5% of OCA's transactions are e-commerce transactions. OCA recently launched a hybrid credit card that in Uruguay operates under its own seal and abroad with MasterCard seal. 50% of transactions abroad are face-to-face and the other 50% are in e-commerce, Carriquiry added.
En tanto, el gerente de Establecimientos y Marketing de First Data (MasterCard, Diners y Líder), Diego Fava, se excusó de dar datos sobre cantidad de transacciones online, pero dijo que «existe una explosión de solicitudes» para poder utilizar el sello en los canales de comercio electrónico. Consideró que los pagos online «dejaron de ser una tendencia, algo que se viene, para ser algo que se está consolidando».
Consultado sobre si los sellos están prestando atención al comercio electrónico, subrayó: «Para nosotros dejó de ser una tendencia. Si la atención no existía, ahora existe». Integradores y Mercado Pago.
Both Oca, First Data and Visa Net agree on one thing: Uruguayan e-commerce must become PCI certified. Given the high cost for the stores, the hope is placed in payment integrators, such as Pagos Web or Cobros Ya. Currently, several of these companies, which are in charge of implementing the software necessary for a purchase button to exist, are working on this certification.
Caetano, whose company Pagos Web will be PCI in 2017, explained that once they are certified they will be able to offer e-commerce sites that hire them a payment experience similar to that offered by sites like Amazon.
In turn, starting next year, Mercado Pago will allow this service to be included in sites outside the Mercado Libre ecosystem, similar to the way Paypal is used. In this way, non-PCI sites will be able to offer a similar payment facility, Degeronimi explained.
With the ability to move the needle
Para el presidente de la Cámara de la Economía Digital, Marcelo Montado, Mercado Pago será «un dinamizador enorme del comercio electrónico» como lo fue Paypal en Estados Unidos.El gerente de Establecimientos y Marketing de First Data dijo que en los primeros días de Mercado Pago, la actividad «superó las expectativas», aunque se negó a dar datos concretos.Por su parte, el jefe de Negocios Tecnológicos de OCA estimó que todavía no se puede medir el impacto de Mercado Pago, pero «sin lugar a dudas va a mover la aguja». En el mismo sentido, en Visa Net dijeron que esta plataforma será un «facilitador» del comercio electrónico.
The Visa and Order Now Experience
Since July of this year, PedidosYa! offers payments through Visa and Edenred credit cards. On this platform, users enter their credit cards directly on the seal's portal, but they don't have to do it again every time they want to make a purchase.
Esa modalidad, si bien no es como la de PCI, supone un salto tecnológico respecto a lo que hacen otros sitios de comercio electrónico, que desde Visa Net calificaron como «pionero». Actualmente, el 15% de los pedidos que se hacen en la plataforma se pagan directamente con tarjetas Visa y Edenred (Ticket Alimentación), y el 75% se hacen a través de dispositivos móviles.
According to Federica Hampe, head of Communications and Branding at PedidosYa!, 400 establishments, half of the restaurant base at PedidosYa, offer online payment to their users. Uruguay was the first market to implement this service, which has now been launched in Brazil, Argentina and Chile. Hampe said they will soon include more seals on the platform.
Source: The Observer
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