The Challenge
Credicomer, traditionally focused on consumer and retail credit, was looking to grow beyond retail lending and expand into the B2B space.
The breakthrough came when they noticed something unusual: A portion of their consumer credit products were being used by small, informal businesses — corner stores, kiosks, and mom-and-pop retailers.
Instead of treating this as misuse, they saw an opportunity — and brought us in to explore how they might design a bespoke product for this emerging user base.
The Approach
We began by digging deep into the working capital needs of informal retailers in LATAM.
Not just how much they needed — but how their cycles worked, how they managed stock and cash flow, and how their daily decisions shaped the business.
One thing became clear fast: traditional credit products weren’t built for this world.
Most retail lending operates on monthly or fortnightly repayment cycles — based on how salaried consumers get paid.
But informal retailers don’t work that way.
Their reality is:
• Daily cash flow.
• Real-time purchasing.
• Envelope-based budgeting — often quite literally.
We mapped out their financial behavior, capital constraints, and stocking strategies to understand where the friction really lived.
The Insight
Four key insights helped shape the product:
1. This was working capital — not consumer credit. The money wasn’t for TVs or phones. It was for restocking Coca-Cola, bread, or mobile minutes — low-margin, high-turnover products that moved every day. The risk of these products not selling? Extremely low. If we financed the right stock, the risk was nearly self-liquidating.
2. Retailers operated on daily and weekly cycles. Many store owners would set aside a portion of each sale to restock — often physically separating money into small envelopes throughout the day. Asking them to plan around monthly payments made no sense.
3. Stock was everything. Being fully stocked meant being in business. Empty shelves = lost regulars = shrinking margins. Helping shopkeepers stay stocked was the clearest path to helping them stay in business.
4. Users had little or no credit history. That’s why they were using consumer credit in the first place — it was the only thing they could access. Traditional business credit products were out of reach because they lacked formal credit profiles.
The Innovation
We helped Credicomer design a new credit product specifically for informal retailers — focused on enabling real working capital cycles, not mimicking consumer lending.
The product was:
1. Tied to restocking key items. Credit wasn’t generic — it was designed to fund specific, fast-moving inventory we knew would sell. That lowered risk and increased relevance.
2. Designed to help shopkeepers manage repayment. The system helped users track their credit line, deadlines, and even encouraged them to put aside money daily toward repayment. We literally helped owners stay on top of payments with smart nudges and reminders built into their natural routines.
3. Built to grow with the business. Every user started with a small credit line — as little as $50. As they used the product, demonstrated repayment behavior, and set money aside regularly, their credit limit expanded. They earned trust through behavior, not credit history. We weren’t just lending — we were teaching financial practices and helping users become more reliable over time.
We launched a no-code pilot in just 8 weeks with over 50 active businesses, collecting real usage data and iterating in real time.
The Outcome
Credicomer was able to open up an entirely new growth segment — with a product grounded in real-world behavior, not assumptions.
They moved from repurposing consumer credit to building a purpose-built business credit product — one that not only lent capital, but helped organize it, repay it, and scale it with the business itself.
A new kind of relationship with the informal economy — based on access, growth, and earned trust.