There’s an ongoing shift from totally physical business transactions to digital orders and payments. It’s been happening for a while and in Nigeria, it’s picked up steam in the past few years.
Nigerian E-Commerce, once almost totally dismissed as thoroughly inefficient by a critical public, is finally being accepted as the way of the present, and a fixture of future business.
We have payment platforms to thank for doing much of the hard work required for this budding sector’s survival.
paystack
One of such payment platforms is
Paystack, a startup that’s brought the joys of digital payments to small and large businesses. In two years, Paystack has grown from a team of two founders to one of Nigeria’s top payments solutions providers. It’s not hard to see why.
When Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi began building Paystack, businesses with an online presence in these parts were relying on less than satisfactory means of getting paid by their customers. The existing collection systems were tedious, and barely a worthy alternative to good old physical cash handling. Akinlade and Olubi thought they saw a gap crying to be filled, and they threw their energies and resourced right into it.
Fast forward to 2018; their payments system, which is one of the more easy and efficient options for merchants, is being used by
9,000 businesses. For a startup which only went into incubation in 2016, it’s been a brilliant success.
working for the entrepreneur
Paystack is designed to work for
entrepreneurs, regardless of coding skills. Their payment system can easily be plugged into an e-commerce site. This process only takes a few minutes; once it’s done, the merchant has a convenient way to receive payments from their customers, wherever in the country they may be. Customers can likewise make hassle-free payments using a variety of electronic means.
The Paystack platform is useful for businesses which run a recurrent payment model. They can set subscription fees, and keep track of payments. Sites which accomodate multiple sellers can also use Paystack, because it has provisions for sharing payments according to preset figures, whether they be percentage per pay or fixed rates.
The platform allows customers of user businesses to make payments via multiple channels, such as card payments and bank accounts.
Other notable things about Paystack include the fact that it’s
free to set up and has a secure management system which shields merchants from fraud.
In the interviews they’ve granted, Paystack’s representatives have been keen to point out that they aren’t just about payments. There’s also a
growth-enabling side to their operations. The platform provides vital insights by presenting customer purchase data on its dashboard. The trends available for viewing by users include top customers, busiest day of the week, busiest hour of the day, and the share of revenue contributed by each customer. Paystack says these insights are intended to aid businesses in making smart decisions that lead to business growth.
