Consumers can now shop online or with their mobile without giving the retailer any of their sensitive credit or debit card details.
Credit card fraud has cost the South African economy R500 million (US$55,848,000) in the first nine months of 2012 and in the wake of strict card payment regulations, African merchants and service providers are racing to find ways to comply without compromising their customers’ experience.
One solution now being offered to South African merchants is provided by Peach Payments – a start-up based in Cape Town.
Peach Payments is run by co-founders Andreas Demleitner and Rahul Jain, and because their transaction platform is certified as Payment Card Industry (PCI-DSS) Level One, they are able to handle the sensitive data so the merchant does not have to.
Jain told HumanIPO: “With all online payments there is a fear of fraud related to it. We have a state of the art risk management solution so in real time we can detect fraud patterns. What we have helped merchants to do is find the right trade-off between stopping fraud and maintaining a smooth consumer experience on their site.”
When browsing online or using a retailer’s mobile application when it comes to payment, the consumer is often transferred to another site or new page. This interrupts the consumer’s experience and takes control over how the payment process looks away from the merchant. Peach Payments offers merchants a secure and compliant way to embed the payment page on their site directly.
Demleitner said: “Quite a few people in South Africa are unaware of how to bill within their mobile applications, but we do have a solution for this and in that respect we seem to be quite unique in the market.”
Peach Payments is currently focusing on the South African market, but is looking to move into Kenya and Nigeria shortly.
Demleitner added: “From an Africa perspective we are seeing the really early days of e-commerce. One aspect is the consumer really has to get used to using their credit card online. There are positive trends in Africa such as the daily deal Groupon type offers which really increases usage. I think it is very exciting times.”
