Supporting SMEs:
E-Payment Solutions for Small Business Growth

Chocolate Colonial is a small, family-owned business in Buenos Aires, tempting Argentina’s sweet tooth since 1925. When it expanded a few years ago, creating a line of personalized chocolates for special occasions, it went to the Web to woo new customers.

The new product was a hit. Fabiana Ferraz, the founder’s granddaughter, soon saw her online business quadruple, outgrowing a clumsy payment method that required customers to transfer funds from their bank account to the company electronically.

“We were modernizing and we felt good about this new product, but the payment option was too complicated,” Fabiana recalls.

She found an online solution in DineroMail, a reliable e-payment service that lets about 7,500 businesses in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico reach new clients whether they use credit cards or not. About 90 percent of its clients are micro, small, and medium enterprises, many with fewer than five employees.

DineroMail acts as a trusted intermediary between buyers and sellers. Users simply download its free payment systems and start receiving payments, with no need for separate credit card networks or specialized technical skills. It is perfectly suited to business conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean, where only one in five adults has a bank account.

IFC’s $5 million equity investment is helping DineroMail grow, bringing e-commerce to the unbanked and empowering smaller businesses to expand their sales on the Web.
Most DineroMail users choose to pay for their goods in cash. They simply print a bar-coded receipt for their purchase, then pay for it at any store in the firm’s network, thus reducing transaction costs and increasing economic transparency.