Santander and iZettle launch in Brazil
iZettle and Banco Santander hope to capitalise on demand for cheap card reader technology for merchants
Swedish payment company iZettle and Spain’s Banco Santander have launched a new ‘social payments’ system in Brazil, which is designed to help small businesses take card payments with Apple and Android smartphones and tablets.
The system works by having the user sign up and order an iZettle Chip & Signature reader, which costs $99. Once this has been received, there is no subscription fee, no set up fee, monthly fee or minimum. Instead, merchants pay 5.75% of each transaction. The app is free to download from Apple’s app store or Google Play for Android. iZettle is currently running a promotion in which the reader is free for those signing up before the end of September.
The product comes with free software that is designed to help businesses track and analyse sales, read graphs and check revenue, top selling products, transactions, average payment volume and returning customers. iZettle has already launched in Mexico, which was the product’s first launch outside Europe. Former Volvo Latin America chief executive Anders Norinder will lead iZettle’s Brazilian operations.
“Brazil is the world’s second largest card payment market, and the opportunity for iZettle to equip individuals and small businesses with card payment acceptance is immense,” said Magnus Nilsson co-founder and chairman of iZettle do Brasil. “99.7% of companies in Brazil are SMEs and micro merchants and we want to empower them with a cost-effective way to take payments other than cash, so they never have to miss out on a sale again. From sole traders in remote towns, to micro merchants in major cities, this is the start of a big change for Brazil, where accepting card payments for this group will be easier and more affordable than ever.”
Recent months have seen the launch of several tools aimed at the democratisation of cheap card payments and the reduction of cost for merchants. In February, payment provider PayPal launched a card reader device that handles Chip & PIN and PayPal payments in Europe. The same month, Banco Santander signed its original deal with iZettle to distribute mini chip-card readers to small-scale merchants. The iZettle chip and PIN reader costs £49 in Europe. The user then downloads a free app to accept the payment via Bluetooth. By comparison, a merchant could buy a standard countertop chip and PIN reader from another provider for £16.99 per month, which would amount to £203.88 per year.
In April, payments company Kalixa Group launched a set of tools including an mPOS, e-wallet and acceptance kit, which it says will disrupt the global payments market in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. The tools consist of Kalixa Pro, a chip and PIN-based mobile point of sale device linked to the Kalixa e-wallet; Kalixa Pay, the e-wallet itself; and Kalixa Accept, a payment processing tool that is designed to help businesses accept online payments. The aim is to provide a toolset that covers the payments chain and make it simpler.
Meanwhile, Brazil gained its first ever mobile payment service in May, when Telefónica and MasterCard launched a joint service called Zuum. Available first in Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte, the Zuum service allows Brazilians to transfer money, buy credits for pre-paid mobile phones and pay bills with their mobile phone.
