Popular online shopping marketplace Temu and a leading cross-border payment platform dLocal join forces to bring affordable products to emerging markets of Africa, Asia, and Latin America at favourable conditions.
Temu and dLocal have entered a strategic partnership to enhance the shopping experience for numerous customers in 14 emerging markets that face challenges in accessing global e-commerce.
The partners aim to facilitate international purchases for millions of shoppers across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, including those living in Mexico – the largest e-commerce market in Latin America after Brazil, Colombia – a rapidly growing market with increasing internet penetration and Uruguay – a market with highly digital-savvy population.
Some common issues for these and other emerging markets include a high percentage of the unbanked population, limited or inadequate payment solutions available, higher currency conversion rates and extra costs for international purchases compared to more stable economies, and restricted access to quality products at affordable prices.
Temu and dLocal aim to address these and other deficiencies of local e-commerce ecosystems by providing smooth and secure payment solutions customised to meet regional preferences. Their joint offering will help not only customers in emerging economies but also local merchants since markets lacking localised payment options typically witness cart abandonment rates exceeding 70%. In Africa and Latin America, for example, the rates surge to 84%-85% due to inconvenient payment methods, extended delivery times, limited payment options and requirements to pay in foreign currencies.
dLocal is a unicorn fintech company founded in 2016 in Montevideo, Uruguay. It specialises in cross-border payment solutions that connect global merchants to emerging markets. The fintech operates in over 40 countries across APAC, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. Its services follow the “One dLocal” approach, featuring a single API, a unified platform, and one contract. Therefore, its global business clients can seamlessly handle payments, process payouts, and settle funds worldwide. This eliminates the complexity of managing separate payment processors, establishing multiple local entities, and integrating various acquirers and payment methods in each market.
Justin Goh, Head of APAC at dLocal, stated that they were proud to enable seamless payment experiences for Temu’s customers in emerging markets. He mentioned that by providing localised payment methods and frictionless cross-border solutions, they were making shopping easier and more accessible for underserved consumers, helping them connect to a vast range of value-for-money products.
A Temu spokesperson added that their mission was to ensure everyone had access to quality products at affordable prices. They expressed excitement about partnering with dLocal to extend these benefits to millions of customers in emerging markets, ensuring that more people could enjoy accessible and convenient shopping experiences.
Temu representatives believe that offering localised payment options is key to enhancing customer convenience. Therefore, the company relentlessly works to refine its payment processes to better align with the needs of various markets. With this purpose, the online marketplace has recently partnered with Canadian fintech firm Nuvei, which connects businesses to their customers in over 200 markets, offering local acquiring in 50 markets, 150 currencies, and 720 alternative payment methods.
