Original title: Measuring digital payment transformation in small retail businesses: mixed-method evidence from blockchain adoption in Colombia
The study looks at 76 small retailers in Colombia’s Caribbean region before and after they adopted blockchain-based payments. It compares payment speed, reliability, costs, customer retention, and service quality, and also examines owners’ and managers’ written responses. The reported outcomes improved, but the size of the benefit depended on internet and other infrastructure, staff readiness, seasons, and local customers. The researchers argue that adopting the system also changes how shops coordinate work and build trust.
Imagine a small shop switching to a new way of taking payments. The change may speed up checkout, but it can also fail to help if the connection is poor or staff are not ready to use it. In this paper, the new payment method is the blockchain system, and the shop’s connection, workers, and customers help explain why the results differ from place to place.
For small retailers, payment systems affect how quickly and reliably customers can pay, as well as the cost of running the shop. This study suggests blockchain payments can improve those outcomes, but that the benefits depend on the shop’s infrastructure, staff, and local market.
The abstract notes that causal inference is constrained by non-random adoption, varied local contexts, and imperfect administrative records. It does not establish that blockchain payments alone caused the reported improvements, or that the findings apply to retailers in other regions or settings.
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Measuring digital payment transformation in small retail businesses: mixed-method evidence from blockchain adoption in Colombia — Evaristo Navarro Manotas, Mario Alberto de la Puente Pacheco, Hugo Hernández Palma et al. — Quality & Quantity — doi:10.1007/s11135-026-03087-0
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.