- OKTO PAYMENTS’ report identifies a widening ‘Payment Experience Gap’ that could threaten regional growth in the igaming, online trading, and e-commerce industries in Latin America.
Sao Paulo, date – 96% of merchants are satisfied with their payment providers, yet 95% of Latin American consumers have abandoned payments in the past year because they were too slow or complex.
This contradiction lies at the heart of a new report by OKTO PAYMENTS, revealing a widening disconnect between the accelerated demands of consumer behaviour and merchant perception across Latin America.
“Our study highlights a structural paradox in the market and shows how consumers are now leading the market through a shift in both behaviour and expectations,” explains Edward Chandler, Global CEO at OKTO PAYMENTS. “Merchants feel confident in their payment performance while consumers are increasingly intolerant of friction. When those perceptions diverge, revenue leakage follows as well as customer churn.”
According to this new report, 40% of LatAm merchants identify customer acquisition or churn as their primary barrier to growth. At the same time, 62% admitted that payment friction directly contributes to churn and lost revenue.
However, the scale of the problem and the high stakes of the payment experience for a new generation of consumers have been revealed to be far greater than merchants thought.
While 84% of merchants estimated that between 1-12% of new users abandon their platform due to payment friction, the study found that 39% of LatAm consumers will abandon a payment completely if they face difficulties. In fact, almost half of consumers (45%) admit they have abandoned up to 20% of their deposits due to complexity or lack of speed in the past year alone. In addition, 88% will abandon a purchase if funds are not deposited within one minute.
Meanwhile, 92.5% of merchants believe customers are willing to wait more than four hours for a payout.
The findings show what the report defines as the ‘Payment Experience Gap’ – a growing misalignment between evolving consumer expectations and merchant assumptions.
“This is more than a technical mismatch — it’s a strategic blind spot,” Chandler adds. “But if a business understands how expectations have changed, and aligns payment speed with consumer behaviour, they can turn a point of friction into a driver of loyalty. Our report uncovered a behavioural shift that many businesses have yet to fully absorb. Consumers today are loyal to seamless experiences, not to platforms. If a payment feels slow or complicated, they simply disengage instantly.” Chandler concludes.
In markets shaped by instant payment infrastructures and real-time digital behaviour, expectations around speed and simplicity are accelerating faster than many merchants anticipate.
The full report, ‘Playing Differently in LatAm: How a New Generation of Players is Redefining the Payment Experience’, is based on 620 interviews conducted with merchants and consumers in Brazil, Argentina and Chile in 2026.
About OKTO PAYMENTS
OKTO PAYMENTS is the next-generation Payment Service Provider – AI-native, precision-engineered, and relentlessly merchant-obsessed. Built for merchants operating in the most complex and demanding eCommerce sectors, our platform does far more than process transactions. We solve for scale, compliance, and performance — with one unshakable focus: delivering outcomes that powers merchants’ growth.
From payments and banking to treasury and settlement, we engineer the financial infrastructure that gives our partners an edge. The result? Faster onboarding, smarter operations, and resilient, real-time performance.
At OKTO PAYMENTS, we enable merchants to Play Differently, transforming payments from routine transactions into genuine differentiators that create personalized, frictionless payment experiences for their customers.
Our AI-native innovation harnesses data and insight to power every decision, while our proprietary, in-house engineering ensures precision and control. Combined with deep, trust-based relationships across the globe, we’re redefining what it means to build, scale, and win in complex and demanding digital commerce.
