Arabnet Arabnet

During the ArabNet Digital Summit 2013, Payfort presented its innovative online service payment offering businesses, governments, startups, and other institutions with a new payment method for both banked and non-banked online shoppers.

Omar Soudodi, Managing Director at Payfort, talks about the effectiveness of this payment gateway, which provides different payment options for different markets and merchants using the usual credit card options such as Visa Mastercard or American Express. After all, the company follows the idea that “People are different,” therefore offering different types of payments according to customers’ lifestyles and shopping behaviors. 

Designed for cross-boarder traits; this recurrent payment method allows customers to order from outside or inside their country through a pay-at-home option rather than cash on delivery. Thus, the E-commerce merchant doesn’t have to worry whether the customer has paid for the item or not.

This payment service has been launched five months ago in the UAE. Soudodi mentioned that the company has tested the service through two sites in the UAE: Cleartrip (for travel) and Cobone (for E-commerce) which are virtual products.

Results turned out to be effective from this innovation. “It worked out pretty well…Cobone has seen that their fulfillment is 25% much better with pay-at-home compared to cash on delivery, though both payments are COD-based,” said Soudodi.

According to Soudodi, the Arab world is following the trend of the globe. When it comes to purchasing categorized products, 60% consist of electronics, 25% home products and the rest is fashion and beauty care items. Therefore, Payfort considers itself as a payment gateway of the Arab world, in harmony with this upcoming trend. Soudodi insists that the company’s technology is a local support for the Arab region compared to other businesses. He states: “Our technology is very innovative. When it comes to risk management, some payment gateways look for 70 business rules, while we look for 20,000 business rules to manage risk.”

Shopping on mobile is one of the most adapted buying behaviors nowadays and “16% of e-commerce transactions are coming from mobile devices or tablets,” according to Soudodi. Thus, Payfort’s technology is updated to this trend allowing app programmers to install the payment gateway inside their apps, while the payment method remains credit-card based. 

Soudodi sees the idea of mobile-based payments happening in the Arab region within 3 to 5 years.

For more information about Payfort check the interview below: