The SiD Blog

This year’s sudden spike in online shopping on Black Friday showed the true potential of e-commerce in South Africa. But it also showed that local merchants may not be prepared for sudden spikes in e-commerce trade which will continue into the festive season. By offering SID Instant EFT as a payment method, local merchants can significantly cut down on fraud and improve customer service.

All e-commerce businesses face the risk of losses due to chargebacks and fraud. This article outlines 7 simple ways in which you can protect your online store.

“E-commerce is growing by leaps and bounds, but each business, whether large or small depends not only on great products and good delivery, but also on the trust of the customer to utilise online payment methods so the transaction can actually take place. If this trust is not there, they may as well close shop,” says Kyle Rozendo, CTO at SID Instant EFT.

Europe’s Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) is expected to come into force in January 2018. With some banking industry commentators referring to it as the biggest development in banking history, one has to wonder why South Africa has not already begun to follow suit.

The South African e-commerce web development landscape is highly competitive with shrinking margins and developers highly sensitive to delays. Working with a payment vendor which understands the needs of developers as well as merchants can make all the difference.

While online retail still only accounts for 1% of retail revenue in South Africa, the growth rates of more than 20% year-on-year since 2000 speak volumes about the need for every business to seriously plan for an online presence.