×

5 Key Factors Driving Online Payments in UAE

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.

PCI-DSS: Does it sound Greek to you?

PCI-DSS: Does it sound Greek to you?

Ever seen the green logo at the bottom of the checkout page for an e-commerce site? The PCI-DSS logo. You must have wondered what does the logo signify? Well, it is a mark of authentic security verification for the site and all the payment gateways associated with the particular site.

PCI-DSS stands for Payment Cards Industry- Data Security Standard. It is a worldwide industry body which verifies the security measures in place with regards to a payment gateway, an e-commerce site and banks as well. The certification and compliance measures are executed through globally approved scanning vendors of PCI-DSS.

One such vendor goes by the name of SISA, which recently audited PayTabs’ India office and ensured that operations in the particular office meets their security standards. SISA is a vendor which operates across the globe for PCI-DSS.

The PCI-DSS certification & compliance helps instill confidence among the uconsumer to provide their card details to the site or the payment gateway, because the card data is SSL encrypted or TLS 1.2 encrypted, thereby ensuring maximum security for the consumer’s card data.

The basic parameter of a PCI-DSS audit is to check for devices within the organization which has the potential to store, process and transact card data. No card data should be stored openly in any of the devices in an organization. All data should be in encrypted format. The CVV of a particular card should not be stored under any circumstances.

Last but not the least, the PCI council which consists of leading payments solutions providers such as MasterCard, Visa, Amex, JCB, RuPay and Dicover.

As a customer, whenever you are using your card details or bank details on any site or payment gateway, it is imperative for you to check for PCI-DSS certification/data encryption denotion.

To gain more insight on the security imperative for payment gateways, click here.

You can now subscribe to our blog alerts and stay at the top of trends and knowledge in the context of e-commerce and payments. Moreover, if you are interested in experiencing the completely secure PayTabs payment solution, sign up for a free demo!

Please feel free to leave us a comment or a query below.

 

Invoicing in a Jiffy!

Invoicing in a Jiffy!

As a merchant, one of your primary concerns is the invoice generation for your customers, who has placed bulk orders or offline orders with you, for the products you have sold or the services you have delivered. Especially, you are in the space of taking international orders, it is a necessity to have an invoicing system that works for you and takes care of multiple currencies and has provision for multiple customizations and itemizations as per your requirement.

Over the years, with the advent and penetration of e-invoicing, the transactional process between a merchant and a buyer has been made easier. Automated workflows help you save time and receive payments faster and leads to reduced exceptions and disputes.  All in all, switching from manual to e-invoicing is a win-win proposition for you that enable your business grow.

Don’t pay heed to certain misconceptions in the marketplace that paints a picture of e-invoicing being only for businesses that have a website. That’s not true. If you are a brick and mortar business, you can still benefit from e-invoicing without owning a website or a marketplace. In fact, it is not just convenient; an optimum e-invoicing solution comes with user friendly features such as logo, discounting systems, taxes, invoice terms, etc.

Ideally, an e-invoicing solution should provide you with multiple benefits:

  • Manage Multiple Invoices
  • Recurring Invoices
  • Speed, Reliability and Security when it comes to payments
  • Single Dashboard for all your transactions

Besides the above, an intelligent invoicing solution should help you keep a track of your productivity through financial reporting which results in better financial management, apart from providing real time financial analysis.

PayTabs has been at the forefront of revolutionizing the invoicing space with an intelligent and robust solution known as PayPage which adds tremendous value for merchants.

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

Payment Gateway Selection: 6 Factors to be Considered

Payment Gateway Selection: 6 Factors to be Considered

If you take a step back and look at the entire e-commerce ecosystem, you would realize that one of the key elements of an e-commerce portal is the effectiveness and efficiency of your Payment Gateway. As you are in the process of choosing a payment gateway, we are here to give you a ready reckoner on the factors to evaluate while considering a payment gateway.

  1. Security: In a world where cyber security risk has been growing by the day, it is critical for you to check the security parameters of the gateway. Look for a PCI-DSS certification apart from elements such as anti-fraud protection, 3D secure authentication for cards.
  2. Ease of Integration: There are multiple platforms, on which your e-commerce portal might have been built, be it Magento, Shopify, OpenCart, Woo Commerce, PrestaShop, etc. The payment gateway should be easy to integrate onto any of these shopping cart platforms. Whether it is Mobile SDK, Direct API, iFrame or Express Checkout, the method of integrating with your shopping cart should be hassle free with minimum documentation.
  3. Mobile Optimization: The penetration of mobile onto or lives has been wide reaching an m-commerce is at the forefront of the mobile revolution. Customers are shopping through the mobile like never before. As per latest data, over 2 Billion mobile and tablet consumers will engage in some form of mobile commerce transaction by the end of 2017*. The gateway you select should provide a seamless shopping experience for the customer, irrespective of the type of device.
  4. Merchant Support: Payment Gateway technology support is critical to the success of your e-commerce portal in today’s day and age. 24×7 dedicated support is an imperative for you. It is basic but very critical for you.
  5. Currencies and Alternative Payment Methods: The world has indeed become a small place and the consumer can be located anywhere. It is therefore a necessity in today’s global marketplace that a payment gateway has provisions for payments in multiple currencies and a plethora of alternative payment methods to enhance customer experience.
  6. Fees: The operative word in the realm of fees is transparency. Set up fees, transaction fees, net banking transaction fees, different transaction fees on different cards, annual maintenance fees, etc…. The entire gambit of fees can be burdening for an e-commerce entrepreneur. They key is to select a gateway, which has no hidden fees. All their fees need to be disclosed, before you sign on the dotted lines.

For more insights, you can subscribe to our blog alerts.

Moreover, you can evaluate the features on PayTabs and should you be interested in a free demo, you can sign up here.

*Data Source: E-Marketer & E-Consultancy

PayTabs
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.