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5 Key Factors Driving Online Payments in UAE

Category: Growth Hacks

5 Key Factors Driving Online Payments in UAE

5 Key Factors Driving Online Payments in UAE

The recent surge in global online payments has been pretty evident across the world and the growth has been driven by stupendous growth in e-commerce transactions done in the Middle East. In fact, in one of our earlier posts, when we clearly stated that as per Capgemini’s World Payments Report 2017, the global growth in non-cash transactions has been driven by CEMEA (Central Europe, Middle East and Africa) & Emerging Asia, with UAE paying a leading role as the biggest contributor to growth in e-commerce and online payments.

The following 5 factors are driving the growth of online payments in UAE:

Increased Card Penetration:

The number of cards being used for any transaction has in fact risen to 10% of all transactions in the UAE and most of the transactions are being done online.

Growing Tourism:

UAE attracts a whole host of tourists and they always tend to pay online for most of their services like hotel booking and air ticketing.

Large upwardly mobile expat population:

The UAE has long been a global melting pot which is a testimony to the large expat population who are more tech savvy and purchase online.

Macro-economic scenarios:

The flattening of oil prices has meant that the country is diversifying its economy and focusing more on new age sectors such as e-commerce which has been aided by robust internet and smartphone penetration in the country.

Demographic Dividend:

The UAE has a relatively young population. Roughly about 24% of its 9 million+ population are below 24 years of age. Therefore it comes as no surprise that significant population in the UAE transact and pay online and pay online.

If you are interested in more such insights, feel free to subscribe to our blog alerts. Moreover, do not forget to sign up for a free demo of PayTabs, to understand how PayTabs can add value to your business.

7 Tips for E-Commerce Success

7 Tips for E-Commerce Success

The 2016 Pitney and Bowes Global Online Shopping study estimated 66% of online consumers are international. This percentage is likely to grow in the coming years.

Having said that, before you jump the international e-commerce bandwagon, it is important that you focus on certain areas for long term success. As we provide you with the following tips, you would need to be mindful of the fact that the e-commerce race is a marathon and not a sprint!

  1. Don’t Hurry: Launching your e-commerce site shouldn’t be done in a hurried fashion. There is only one shot you have in launching your site. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all functionalities of the site are working properly. Do a thorough testing. You can purchase a domain name and create a pre-launch page on the lines of “Coming Soon”, but until you have done significant groundwork in terms of content, technology, functionalities, SEO, paid advertising planning, don’t launch!
  2. Consumer is the King: The user or the consumer should be the focus of your e-commerce venture. Notwithstanding the recent advances in augmented reality and artificial intelligence, the big shortcoming that you would have to deal with is the fact that the consumer cannot touch, feel and smell the products before buying. You can compensate this by offering better prices, free shipping and more importantly, simplified shopping carts and a hassle free checkout with a seamless payments solution.
  3. Testing: At every stage of your e-commerce business (pre-launch, launch and growth), you should test everything, right from functionalities to user experience and user interface. Hence, it is imperative to invest significantly in testing and analytics.
  4. Social Focus: Do not outsource social media marketing at the starting phase of your e-commerce venture. It is indeed the heartbeat of your business. Through social media you can gain valuable insights into prospective customers. As an entrepreneur, you would need to be hands on with your social media. You can employ a community manager but you need to keep a close watch on your social media marketing. Include social elements on your e-commerce website. Small elements like reviews, social login options and follow/sharing buttons help in conversion.
  5. Mobile: Way back in 2014, Goldman Sachs had predicted that global mobile commerce will account for nearly half of e-commerce by 2018 amounting to a figure in excess of $620 Billion*. If you aren’t building your e-commerce portal with a mobile first approach, then there’s no point in venturing at all.
  6. SEO: Over time, Search engines have evolved to be more valuable for e-commerce sites. In fact, most of your traffic will come from search engines as people are increasingly searching for products on Google, Yahoo or Bing. Therefore ensure that you stay on top of SEO to stand out among competition. You may need to hire an agency to help you out with SEO in the beginning.
  7. Information and Evolution: Make it a point to collect as much of customer information and build databases to aid future launches of different versions, categories or a new sister site. Lastly, evolution is a critical element because technology, trends and consumer tastes/preferences change over time.

For more insights on e-commerce and payment solutions, you can subscribe to our blog alerts.

Moreover, to understand our payment solutions and how we can help you grow your e-commerce business, click here.

*Source: Digicommerce 360

The Security Imperative for Payment Gateways

The Security Imperative for Payment Gateways

 

“There are risks and costs to a program of action—but they are far less than the long range cost of comfortable inaction.”

John F Kennedy

It would be perilous to be comfortably inactive in a dangerous world of hackers and data thieves.

In a world that’s becoming increasingly being accustomed to data breaches and cybersecurity risks. It is therefore imperative that necessary safeguards must be put in place to protect the consumer and the enterprise. Security invariably is an issue in the payment gateway space. Consumers won’t pay online if the system isn’t secured. It is a trust issue.

Security is a big factor in the e-commerce space, hence we as an industry have come up with a whole host of symbols to drive consumer confidence.

The Security Imperative for Payment Gateways

The Security Imperative for Payment Gateways

The payment processing industry has gone through a paradigm shift in recent times owing to significant growth in the e-commerce space, in emerging markets where e-commerce companies have sprouted in huge numbers and have been instrumental in driving consumption.

In such a scenario, the payments processing industry has been moving through with security measures which improves data protection yet retaining the efficiency of transactions. The trends that are driving the payments processing industry from a security standpoint are as follows:

  • Integrators are taking the QIR program seriously
  • More payment solutions are seeking P2PE validation
  • EMV certifications are faster and more robust
  • End users are willing to pay for security

The last point among the trends is particularly interesting and goes to show that the consumer cares for security while making a payment and does not really mind shelling out extra for having the peace of mind while transacting on the web.

In fact, we at PayTabs understand the critical nature of payments security, hence we have a robust security infrastructure to offer the highest level of security, for your transactions and your customers.

Given below are some of the salient features of our security Infrastructure:

  • 3D Secure Authentication through Mastercard SecureCode & Verified by Visa
  • Dual Layer Fraud Protection & Management
  • PCI-DSS Certified
  • Digicert-EV SSL Secure
  • 99% fraud free transactions

Visit our homepage to know more or leave a comment below, if you have any queries or insights. We would love to hear from you.

9 smart ways to boost your eCommerce business during Ramadan

9 smart ways to boost your eCommerce business during Ramadan

It has been observed that the sacred month of Ramadan is a time when the online spending by Muslims all over the world rises significantly. Throughout this month, devout Muslims fast, pray, donate to the needy, and exchange gifts with loved ones. This holy month culminates with Eid al-Fitr, a festival that marks the breaking of the month-long dawn to sunset fast. And it encourages all Muslims to purchase various household as well as personal and gift items. A study conducted by The Arabian Marketer also showed that a 15% growth in retail and a 35% growth in travel through online sales were noticed during Ramadan 2015. As a result, ecommerce companies have started offering whopping discounts and attractive promotions on fashion apparel, electronics, sportswear, automotive and more. But are such measures enough to attract Ramadan shoppers? Not really! Here are a few things to keep in mind if you wish your sales to peak during this sacred month:

  1. Make your ecommerce store mobile-friendly – During Ramadan, most people are usually away from their desktops or laptops, but are active on their mobiles, which include smartphones and tablets. Google also shows that more people during this period watch more YouTube videos and search on the internet through mobile phones. Hence, a mobile-friendly and easy to navigate website is crucial to lure such shoppers.
  2. Focus on the right times – Weekend, early morning hours, shortly before the sunset and right after the sunset when the faithful breaks his or her fast are the peak times for shopping. And you will have to be ready for that.
  3. Say yes to Arabic – In a country where the majority speaks Arabic, it will do your website a lot of good if it has a version in that language. Ensure that your site supports local currencies and payment platforms like Paytabs. Such payment gateways assure easy and transparent fund transfer.
  4. A pre-Ramadan campaign can help – To emotionally connect with potential shoppers, it is a good idea to go for a pre-Ramadan campaign. It shows that you appreciate the local culture and respect the sacred month.
  5. Track across devices – Modern online shoppers often keep switching from their PC to mobile to tablet, during a single purchase. And this trend increases during Ramadan. So unless you can track customer behavior across different devices, you might approach a shopper with a product he or she no longer wants. And this way, you might lose out on a potential sale.
  6. Stand apart from competition – Since most or all ecommerce companies will be vying for the customers’ attention, you need to build special digital marketing strategies to stand out from the crowd. Unique or rare offers might help.
  7. Find out what works best for you – Not all industries are affected in the same way by Ramadan. For instance, fashion outlets usually benefit the most from the sale of kid’s clothing. Travel agents on the other hand benefit when they keep an eye on the best times for booking flights and hotels.
  8. Don’t ignore feast days – The last 3 days of Ramadan might witness a sharp decline in sales, since everyone is feasting and celebrating. But you mustn’t give up hope because of that. Remember that though people are away from their laptops or computers, they will definitely carry around their mobiles. Reach out with a warm message on Eid, so that your engagement with the shoppers continues.
  9. Make the most of social media – Interactions on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter increase by leaps and bounds during Ramadan. A study by Motion Point reveals that this hike can be as much as a third! Hence, strategic social media marketing will come in handy and drive more traffic towards your website.

So, gear up for Ramadan with the smart tips mentioned here. There is every possibility that you might end up reaping more benefits than ever before!

 

 

5 Simple Steps to Launching a Successful Ecommerce Business

5 Simple Steps to Launching a Successful Ecommerce Business

There are stories all around about people with limited expertise and background turning rich because of the eCommerce boom. From packaged snow to jewellery made from sustainably sourced nuts, almost all types have businesses are exploring the online channel to leverage a worldwide audience. It is only logical that if you have been toying with an eCommerce business idea, you want to launch it quickly and smoothly. As a key stakeholder, you will have your hands full with operational aspects, of your business. Hence the best thing you can do is get all the basic aspects of your ecommerce set up right before you launch.

  1. Choose a proper platform to build your business

Some sellers choose to sell only via third party e-tailers. This will involve taking the time out to understand the platform’s guidelines and optimizing your listings while you showcase your products right next to your competitors. Others choose to create their own store website and sell through it. Each option has its pros and cons. While you save on commission in your own platform, you’ll have to invest significant time and effort to drive traffic. Also, having your own store front will involve working with platforms like Open Cart or shopify or independent developers and additional plugins for customization. Some do a hybrid of both which ensures idea validation and sales from third party websites while your own traffic builds. We’ve seen the hybrid model work wonders for small businesses.

  1. Create an impeccable UI

Design plays a huge role in telling your customers that you are a serious seller. When you develop a store front, pay extra attention to user experience, colours, font, logo and design. You can’t tell much when you are just launching but most people who have done superior designs later have found it to be a big factor in aiding conversion. This is also one major area where most newcomers try to cut corners to hasten the launch. In fact, the first version of many websites are a very poor version of their current version. But that shouldn’t stop you from making your first version a good one. It is when you customers, competitors and investors will want to explore what you sell.

  1. Choose a reliable payment gateway provider

Imagine your customer wanting to buy something and isn’t able to complete the transaction because of a sloppy payment gateway! Seeing people drop away from the final level of your funnel is heartbreaking. Also, with some gateways charging both static fees and per transaction commission, it can just make a dent in your hard-earned money.

So how do you choose a good payment gateway provider?

These days, the easiest way to to set up your payment process is via a “modern” payment gateway that doesn’t require a merchant account. The actual transaction happens on their website ensuring that they are responsible for both security and compliance.

Integrated payment gateways are complex and generally used by bigger stores who want the edge of customers not leaving their site to complete the payment.

Things to consider

> Price: Payment gateways usually charge per transaction or for monthly usage. Some have both and an initial set up fee. 2% may not seem much but it can pinch if you are selling high end goods.

> Actual process: Check out the demo for the payment gateway on their site. See how many leaps your customers will have to make to finish their transaction.

> Support: Once in a while, you will get a rotten egg that’ll need hand-holding. For such cases, it is best to know how your payment gateway deals with things like returns, refunds and complaints.

For example, Paytabs not only offers a very small fee that fits most startups, it also offers hand holding and ongoing support.

  1. High level knowledge on driving traffic to your site

As an online business, it is imperative that you know the basics of search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click advertising (PPC), Social media marketing (SMM) and influencer marketing. SEO for your own store, for your app store (aSEO) and even for third-party listings plays a key role in how your product reaches consumers. PPC advertising can be a great tool for idea validation. Social is something that you simply can’t do without and you need to hold your influencers closer than your friends. Even if you choose to hire an agency to do this, take an initial course online to ensure that you understand when your agency shares metrics with you.

  1. Test and launch

Keep a set of 50 – 100 people friend list who can be your guinea pigs during the initial days. Ask them to independently evaluate your site performance and give you feedback from time to time. From small bugs to dummy content to blurry images, these extra eyes can do a world of good before your actual customers see your site.

Last but not the least, be agile and ready to shift gears quickly. Learning from experiments is a great way to grow your ecommerce business.