The topic of e-commerce and merchant accounts in South Africa is still somewhat of a taboo. A friend of mine recently spent over a month trying to get a merchant account that would allow him to accept payments online in the manner he wanted. It was a slow and difficult process, one which he says he never wants to have to go through again.
I received a press release not too long ago about a service called evriPay, which essentially provides entrepreneurs and small businesses with e-commerce merchant accounts. It’s a new service based on some exciting technology that is designed to meet specific payment needs of interested parties. The service in South Africa is provided by evriPay under agreement with a major South African bank and includes internally recognised fraud management technology.
Here’s the press release:
In designing the business to meet the specific requirements for entrepreneurs, new and small businesses it became obvious that the fee structure had to be sustainable for cash strapped start-ups. evriPay’s fees structure has no monthly or start-up fees. Everything is “pay as you go”. This reduces the risks to the new business and assists them to get to market.
Currently there a two ecommerce products available, “Express” for use on websites, and “PayMi” (pronounced “pay me”) which is an electronic invoice. “Express” is easy to integrate into a website and has been designed to meet the requirements of new and start-up companies. Although not requiring great skills for implementation, the product meets all international security requirements. “PayMi” is a unique product that can be used for ecommerce payments without a website. Primarily designed for businesses and entrepreneurs that need to invoice customers, this product essentially creates a one time website with credit card payment facilities built in. Typical users include freelancers and tour operators.
Built into the evriPay products are two levels of security. Firstly is 3D Secure which is the international standard merchant protection from Visa and MasterCard. Secondly is an international fraud management service that is not currently available to entrepreneurs, new and small businesses in South Africa. This service performs over 200 checks on each transaction and is probably the most sophisticated system available.
“We fundamentally understand that entrepreneurs, new and small businesses are new at this game. They generally do not have a lot of experience in payments yet. To assist them we have a Support Team that can be contacted by phone, email, Skype and Twitter,” says CEO Barry Coetzee. “With the advent of m-commerce (commerce on mobile devices) and with ecommerce growing at 30% per year in South Africa, evriPay is really positioning itself to be the payment solution provider of choice for entrepreneurs, new and small businesses.”
Sounds like a step in the right direction to me. Head on over to evriPay to learn more, sign ups are open too!
this post couldnt have come at a better time 1000000…..points Chris :D
I am sorry but I don’t see the need to give a payment gateway a percentage of the amount and on top of that a fixed fee also, then I also need to pay them a fee each time I need them to transfer my money to my bank account. What must the markup be on your products just to cover all these fees?
I get that they also need to make money but they are really trying to get money out of everything you do, there are way more cheaper payment gateways in SA like VCS, PayGate and MyGate that only charges a fixed fee per transaction between R1.00 and R1.80.
Ashley has a nice table here that sets out the fees of some of the local payment gateways.
The difference that I can see here, Gerhard, is that you’re not required to have a merchant account at any bank, which is likely to set you back a couple of hundred a month – so this would be an attractive option for freelancers perhaps.
I just skimmed through some of the details quickly, though, so maybe I’ve got the greasy end of the stick :)
Jaydon – Thanks for the great comment . We have a unique e-invoice product (PayMi) specifically for freelancers.
Gerhard – Your comments are correct, but they would apply to every type of merchant. The cost of doing business does have to come off the mark-up. In physical world retail this would include rent and electricity as well. What we have done is include every single possible cost that we will charge so that you know exactly what you are in for. Also, we are positioning ourselves in this very competitive market as offering innovative products and great service as well as a good price. We hope that will count for something when people decide on a payment solution. Thanks for the comments.