OKTO PAYMENTS new study identifies a new pattern of spontaneous consumption in Latin America and highlights the growing impact on igaming & betting, fx a& trading and other e-commerce businesses
São Paulo, April 8, 2026 – There is a scene that keeps repeating itself across different sectors of digital commerce. A consumer spots a deal on their phone and decides to buy it on the spot. Another, at home, watches a game and places a bet during halftime. A third tracks a market swing and tries to execute an investment. Different contexts, same pattern: the decision happened in seconds, unplanned, and if the platform’s payment system can’t keep up with that pace, the moment is gone and the sale is lost.
This is the behavior that new research from OKTO PAYMENTS, a payment service provider, identifies as the Impulse Economy, an environment where transactions are triggered instantly and won or lost in milliseconds.
The study “Playing Differently in LatAm: How a New Generation of Players is Redefining the Payment Experience”, conducted with 620 consumers and businesses in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, reveals that spontaneous digital consumption is no longer occasional, it is dominant. Latin America is emerging as a leading indicator of this shift, particularly in high-intensity sectors such as retail, betting, and online investing. Latin America is emerging as a leading indicator of this shift, particularly in high-intensity sectors such as retail, betting, and online investing.
More than 95% of respondents report having already made purchases, bets, or investments online without planning to, while doing something else entirely. For 37.5%, this type of spontaneous consumption accounts for more than 30% of all their digital activity in a given month.
The challenge for businesses starts the moment payments fail to match the speed of decision-making of the consumer. According to the research, 87.9% of users expect a deposit or payment to be processed in under 60 seconds. Among Gen Z and Millennials, more than half (52.5%) want it resolved in under 30 seconds.
When that threshold is crossed, the consequences become clear: 29% abandon the transaction on the spot, without trying again. Another 48% say they’ll try later, but in an impulse-driven context, that intention rarely converts into a return visit.
Peak demand moments push platforms to their limits
Impulse consumption doesn’t build gradually throughout the day. It spikes in short windows, triggered by an external event, such as a goal, a flash sale, a market headline. More than half (55.6%) of the merchants surveyed report that one third of their total transaction volume is concentrated in the first five minutes after that specific trigger.
And at exactly those high-intensity windows, consumers are even less tolerant of any friction. The study shows that nearly 40% of users say they have less patience for slowdowns during impulse situations, precisely when they are most motivated to complete the transaction.
““We’re seeing a fundamental shift, payments are no longer a back-end function, they are the moment where revenue is either captured or lost,” says Andre Boesing, General Manager South LatAm at OKTO PAYMENTS. ”In the Impulse or you can call it Zero-Wait Economy, conversion doesn’t depend on intent, it depends on speed. If you can’t process in seconds, you’re not competing.”
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Companies recognize the problem, but haven’t solved it yet
The research lays bare the gap between what merchants understand and what they actually deliver. Three in four (75.9%) acknowledge that instant payments are critical for retaining customers. But nearly half (47.4%) admit that payment slowdowns and friction are already hurting their conversion and retention rates in practice.
That disconnect also shows up in how businesses read what users actually value. The study finds that 28.8% of respondents rank immediate access to funds as the top factor in staying with a platform — ranking above price, product variety, and customer support. It is the most cited indicator across all attributes evaluated in the study.
“Consumers have already adapted to real-time experiences, but payments haven’t fully caught up,” Andre adds. “The gap between how fast people decide and how fast businesses can process is where friction turns into revenue loss. The most valuable transactions today happen in the smallest windows of time. Peak moments don’t just increase volume, they compress expectations. Systems that perform under normal conditions often fail exactly when it matters most.” Andre Boesing concludes.
About OKTO PAYMENTS
OKTO PAYMENTS is the next-generation Payment Service Provider – AI-native, precision-engineered, and relentlessly merchant-obsessed.
Built for merchants operating in the most complex and demanding eCommerce sectors, our platform does far more than process transactions. We solve for scale, compliance, and performance — with one unshakable focus: delivering outcomes that power merchants’ growth.
From payments and banking to treasury and settlement, we engineer the financial infrastructure that gives our partners an edge. The result? Faster onboarding, smarter operations, and resilient, real-time performance.
We enable merchants to Play Differently, transforming payments from routine transactions into genuine differentiators that create personalized, frictionless payment experiences for their customers. Our AI-native innovation harnesses data and insight to power every decision, while our proprietary, in-house engineering ensures precision and control. Combined with deep, trust-based relationships across the globe, we’re redefining what it means to build, scale, and win in complex and demanding digital commerce.
