dLocal, a cross-border payment platform, has found that 71% of emerging-market shoppers are unlikely to purchase without local payment options.
dLocal has released The Next Wave of Global Consumers report, examining online shopping preferences and purchasing drivers across seven consumer markets in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. The report is based on an online survey of 1,358 consumers in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Thailand, the Philippines, Kenya, and Nigeria. It found that 71% of respondents would be unlikely to purchase from a website that does not support their local currency or an alternative local payment method, while nearly 99% considered access to these options important.
Local payment methods influence purchasing decisions
The research found that 93% of respondents would be more likely to purchase from a foreign brand if they could use their preferred local payment method, including bank transfers, mobile wallets, and local payment schemes. Payment-related factors also influenced online shopping behaviour, with more than half of respondents identifying local payment methods and currencies as having the biggest impact on their purchasing behaviour.
The absence of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options was identified as a barrier by 39% of respondents, followed by the lack of alternative payment methods such as e-wallets, bank transfers, mobile payments, and prepaid cards at 37%. A further 20% cited products not being priced in their local currency.
Consumer preferences vary across markets
The report found differences in purchasing behaviour across the seven markets. In Argentina, 6% of respondents would purchase without local payment support, compared with 5% in Mexico. In the Philippines, 64% of respondents said accepting their preferred local payment method was a more important purchase driver than shipping when buying from European brands. In Nigeria and Kenya, faster shipping was the leading shipping-related purchase driver, while lower shipping costs ranked higher in the other markets. Kenya recorded the highest proportion of respondents identifying the absence of BNPL as a barrier, at 59%. The report also found that Chinese brands were frequently purchased despite receiving more negative responses from respondents than US brands.
Report covers seven emerging markets
The survey was conducted in July 2026 among verified respondents in three regions: Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. The sample included 210 respondents each in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Thailand; 206 in the Philippines; 157 in Kenya; and 155 in Nigeria. Fieldwork was conducted in respondents’ local languages, including Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Thai, and English.
