What is mercado pago: is it a safe payment method?

Mercado Pago, is the online payment tool created by Mercado Libre in 2003 that is growing by leaps and bounds. It allows you to sell and buy both in online and physical stores. Mercado Pago is a platforms who owns one of the greatest user bases in Latin American as it is present in 7 countries.

Today we explain what is Mercado Pago, its safety level and how it works so you can implement it in your store.

• What is Mercado Pago
• What is Mercado Libre?
• Is Mercado Pago safe?
• How does it work?
• Countries with Mercado Pago
• When should you use Mercado Pago?

What is Mercado Pago

Mercado Pago is the largest online payment platform in Mexico (and probably in Latin America). This payment tool allows you to charge through different channels like: payment link (social media and whatsapp), QR Codes (in person) and Mercado Pago checkout in online stores.

Through Mercado Pago, customers can pay with:

• Credit Card
• Debit Card
• Cash Payment
• Installment Payment
• Digital Wallet
• Bank transfer (in Chile via Khipu and in Colombia via PSE)

In return, it provides customers with access to promotions and financial services without commissions or extra expenses and without risks of any kind. The account works as a virtual wallet that allows you to make payments, avoiding paperwork and saving time.

What is Mercado Libre?

It is a platform that allows users/entrepreneurs to advertise, buy, pay and sell products and services through the Internet in a very practical way. In other words, Mercado libre is a “virtual mall” where everyone can be a merchant, buyer, and advertiser at the same time.

Mercado Libre was launched in 1999 in Argentina, and the site has its own versions in 18 countries, the vast majority in Latin America. Mercado Libre is the leading marketplace in Latin America presenting more than 60 million offers in real time, including products, real estate, cars and services. This variety of products and services draws a lot of attention from Internet users who do not give up the comfort of buying items that usually have a lower price in this marketplace than in physical stores.

A proof of its the success is that the site registers 9 sales and 6 thousand searches per second. This makes many business owners invest in the platform to gain more customers and allows the consumer to buy high-quality products in a highly competitive environment, full of offers and products that are difficult to find elsewhere sometimes.

They launched in 2003 this online and secure payment method for latinamericans citizens  in order to solve the increasing fear of being scam victims.

Is Mercado Pago safe?

This is a program developed at the request of the Mercado Libre community, and Mercado Pago also has a buyer protection program so that purchases are 100% protected. The security system of Mercado Pago protects the information that circulates from the computer, smartphone or tablet to the Mercado Pago server, that is, it circulates in an encrypted manner in order to comply with today’s highest online security standards. Mercado Pago safe payments complies with international regulations such as PCI DSS.

As they say on its website, it is a safe payment method for sellers: “We monitor payments 24 hours a day to confirm that everything is fine. Therefore, you will never have to worry. If you see the credited payment among your operations, it means that you can deliver the product with absolute confidence. We will keep the money in your account with maximum security. When you want to withdraw it, we will ask you for a second password, so that you have the peace of mind that you are the only one capable of sending it to a bank account”.

So, the answer to your question is yes, Mercado Pago is a safe way of paying and charging.

How does Mercado Pago work?

You can choose between two types of accounts:

• Personal Account: Default account to use your money as if it were an online wallet at no cost (purchases in Mercado Libre or in any store that accepts Mercado Payments with QR code, you can also pay for services, recharge your cell phone, etc.)
• Seller Account. With this account you have exclusive tools and benefits for your business like:

• • Using the Mercado Pago Checkout in your online store – “the entire payment process can have the aesthetics and logo of your business and adapt to the devices the customer is using”
  • Create collaborators and associate them with your account to organize your business and have a clear view of your work teams
  • When you create your account, all of the countries payment methods will be enabled. Then the customers will have the option to pay as they prefer.
  • Charge with QR code or your point reader and receive your money instantly
  • Customers can pay you in monthly installments with and without interest and take advantage of promotions with credit cards from different banks
  • Manage sales by accessing your statistics and setting up automatic reports to reconcile the money available and the money in the Mercado Pago account.
  • Withdraw your money by transferring to your bank account or at various locations
  • Obtain loans

All the features are available to the seller for free.

After creating an account, you can specify the date and frequency at which transactions will be made available in your Mercado Pago account. You can configurate it right from the business panel.

There are only three steps for sellers to follow:

1. Publish the item to sell and select the Mercado Pago option as the payment option
2. Buyer offers and decides to pay with Mercado Pago
3. As soon as the seller ships the item and the buyer receives it, the money is released and available in the seller’s account

Countries with Mercado Pago

Mercado Pago has expanded its operations to 7 key Latin American countries with a view to continuing to grow in the region, but without losing sight of the fact that the economic and fiscal realities are different in each Latin American country. Those countries are:

• Brazil
• Argentina
• Mexico
• Chile
• Colombia
• Peru
• Uruguay

In fact, Mercado Pago is considered the leader in prepaid cards in some countries such as Chile.

One of the great advantages of Mercado Pago has been its philosophy of creating customized solutions for each country. Solutions that take into account the differences at the economic, consumer, legislative and even fiscal levels. In those seven countries where Mercado Pago operates, there are teams to tailor growth strategies to the reality of each country. They offer different solutions, but the main one is to help them access all payment methods in that country. In Mexico, for example, they have the issue of payments through a Seven Eleven (convenience store) that matters a lot to consumers and therefore, they are going to incorporate it to create the best experience for users.

In case the client chooses a hosted payment, they will have to select one of the APMs available in their region.

When you should use Mercado Pago

It suits you if:

• You have an online store already positioned and you want to give your buyers more payment facilities
• You sell services and your customers are in countries where Mercado Pago also works. It is necessary that you have the app to be able to manage payments and collections and that you have a card that allows international payments.
• You have a physical business in Argentina, Brazil or Mexico where this platform is widely used and so your buyers have more payment options
• You know that a good part of your buyers do not trust payment platforms and want the cash payment option because it gives them security

It is not suitable for you if:

• You are just starting to sell your products or services. Commissions are high if you are just validating your product or service, perhaps something like PayPal is what suits you at this stage of your business.