Telr, one of the region’s leading online payment solution providers, has demonstrated its e-commerce payments and merchant fraud prevention solutions at Seamless Middle East 2017. At the exhibition, executives at Telr shared insights on e-payment trends and solutions for SMEs across the region, especially in emerging markets, including subscription payments, payments through mobile app, tracking fraudulent consumer behaviour, multi-currency and payments from Facebook and Twitter (social commerce).
Online payments, including mobile payments and e-commerce, will be a cornerstone of the digitization wave in the Middle East over the next 4 to 5 years, presenting a number of opportunities for SMEs and retailers in the UAE. According to the Euromonitor 2016 report, online retail was reported to be less than 1.5 percent of the total retail sales in Middle East region in 2015, while mature e-commerce markets are seeing 15 percent to 20 percent of their total retail business from online purchases.
As per the 2016 Mary Meeker report, there is an increasing trend across social media channels of a transition from simple social conversation to business conversation and online transactions. In these instances, customers do not need to visit the merchant’s website to make payments. This in turn helps drive online payment tools such as email invoicing and quick links, which are expected to increase by more than 30% of payment features use in the next year.
Many merchants that have an offline presence can enable their presence on the web, mobile apps and social media and accept online payments. “There is a digitisation wave across the UAE. With e-commerce penetration currently at a lower level than markets in Europe and North America, it is important that the UAE merchants embrace e-commerce and expand online and each to their consumers in overseas markets,” said Sirish Kumar, Founder and CEO of online payment gateway, Telr. “We are excited about UAE Smart Government’s drive towards a cashless society and are committed to continue contributing to the ecosystem that will help this exciting initiative become a reality.”
Telr has also recognised the need for enabling smartphones to become the factor of authentication for transactions. The company has seen more than 60% of transactions through mobile phones in the case of some of their merchants – in such instances, mobile applications can use biometrics in the phone to capture credentials for online payment processes.
It is important that SMEs are able to offer their customers diverse payment options. With data centres located in the UAE, Telr creates customized solutions that help online retailers access a larger segment of the online population, and are not limited to just the existing established online buying population for their e-commerce activity. An example of this is enabling payments on business conversations across social media channels including Facebook, Instagram.
