How Inclusion, Mobile, and Real-Time Payments Are Powering the Next Wave of eCommerce Growth: Insights from Nuvei's New Report

Analysis explores eight high-growth markets to understand how digital inclusion and payment innovation are accelerating online commerce.

MONTREAL, Oct. 31, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Nuvei has published a new report, Global Expansion Guide to High-Growth Markets: Comprehensive Review & Future Outlook, examining how eCommerce is scaling across a group of fast-growing economies: Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, India, Hong Kong, the UAE, and South Africa.

Together, these eight markets are projected to exceed US$1.2 trillion in eCommerce sales by 2027, expanding almost twice as fast as mature economies. Nuvei uses these markets as examples to understand how financial inclusion, mobile-first adoption, and real-time payment systems are shaping digital growth trajectories worldwide.

Inclusion and access at scale

Digital financial access has expanded dramatically across these economies. A decade ago, fewer than half of adults had access to a digital financial account. Today, around 75 percent do, creating a foundation for faster and broader digital commerce growth.

In markets like India and Brazil, financial inclusion has been propelled by large-scale public payment systems such as UPI and PIX, which now reach hundreds of millions of users. In Mexico, open banking reforms and the expansion of SPEI have similarly accelerated access, enabling more consumers and small businesses to participate in digital trade.

The rise of real-time and mobile-first commerce

Mobile commerce now accounts for between 75 and 90 percent of all online purchases across these eight markets. In India, mobile payments already represent the majority of eCommerce spend, while in Brazil, mobile penetration exceeds 90 percent of online consumers.

Real-time payments are also becoming the default. PIX in Brazil processes more than 5 billion transactions per month, and UPI in India now exceeds 10 billion monthly payments. By 2027, more than half of all eCommerce transactions across these markets are expected to flow through instant payment rails, reflecting how speed and interoperability are redefining the customer experience.

In South Africa, the introduction of PayShap is extending these real-time benefits to a broader share of the population, while Hong Kong's Faster Payment System and the UAE's digital wallet ecosystem are driving similar momentum across cross-border hubs.

Patterns shaping high-growth markets

Although the pace and pathways vary, several shared dynamics stand out. Real-time infrastructure is accelerating inclusion and trust; mobile-first consumer behavior is compressing adoption cycles; and local payment ecosystems are increasingly influencing global expectations for speed and choice.

These patterns illustrate how high-growth markets are building modern commerce models that are localized, real-time, and increasingly cashless, offering valuable lessons for global merchants looking to expand internationally.

Guidance for global merchants

For international businesses, understanding these trends is essential to capturing new growth opportunities. High-growth markets share structural characteristics such as expanding digital access, diverse payment preferences, and rapidly evolving regulatory frameworks. Tailored approaches to market entry, payment acceptance, and localization are key to scaling successfully.

Nuvei's Global Expansion Guide to High-Growth Markets brings together market data, consumer insights, and ecosystem research to help merchants navigate this complexity. The 2025 edition also previews Nuvei's next phase of research, to be released in early 2026, focused on regional infrastructure developments and new opportunities for cross-border expansion.

Contact:
Alex Hammond
alex.hammond@nuvei.com 

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