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One-on-One interview with Abdulaziz Al Jouf – Founder of PayTabs

One-on-One interview with Abdulaziz Al Jouf – Founder of PayTabs
Mohab Ecommerce 0

One-on-One interview with Abdulaziz Al Jouf – Founder of PayTabs

Evrim Persembe from Startups Middle East interviews Abdulaziz Al Jouf

At 4AM when most of the world is still snoozing, Abdulaziz Al Jouf wakes up without an alarm. By 8AM, when everyone is just about awake, Jouf has already tackled his most pressing problems for the day and is ready to handle all that comes his way in true entrepreneurial spirit.

Entrepreneurship isn’t new for him. He founded seven companies including eCommerce ones. During this time, Jouf realized that all online companies faced a common problem when it came to payments. The market was painfully slow in its execution. It took six months just to get to the bank to set up the gateway and a year to start your first transaction.

Jouf had the idea brimming at the back of his mind since 2010. No company existed at the time to fulfil this market gap. Those who did weren’t scaling beyond limited geographies. By the beginning of 2013, Jouf became sure of his idea and started working on a prototype.

A few months later Jouf chanced upon a meeting with someone who showed a lot of interest in his product. The meeting extended to four hours and several cups of coffee. Only next day did he discover that the person he met was a part of Wa’ed Ventures.

Even though Jouf had prior entrepreneurial experience, funding was new because he had always been bootstrapped in his startups before. It was like this was a story waiting to happen. Once the funding came, new hires helped build the rudimentary system further and by December, they had their first transaction.

During the initial days, PayTabs had to hard-code every merchant who joined. They had to spend hours to convince the bank that this technology was set to disrupt the way transactions were being carried out online. By the end of the month, they had 300 requests in their hand. Jouf knew that this was good, but how scalable would the technology really be? He found his answer when in a month’s time the company processed quarter million dollars.

In fact, working with banks to execute this entire system has been PayTabs’ biggest challenge. During his initial days, Jouf met a banker with 20 years of experience. The banker outright disapproved of his idea and refused investment. He said it would either kill Jouf or take forever to execute. Jouf walked out of the meeting thinking it was probably then a good idea! Anytime you try being in disruptive technology, it is generally met with resistance as people have a comfort zone with what is currently working. It turns out that the same reason is also why PayTabs has very few competitors who can match up numbers.

The investment almost sounds like cake walk to outsiders but Jouf knows the hard work he had to put in for 13 months before he got his first investment cheque of 2.5M. If he were to do the whole thing again, the one thing he would do differently would be to raise his second and subsequent rounds of funding as quickly as possible.

Speaking about the start-up ecosystem in Saudi Arabia, he said that things are encouraging now with many more investors than before. But his advice to budding entrepreneurs is to not be greedy and push for a clean evaluation from potential investors before talking money on the table. Earlier investors would wait for the company to show proof of market, but now they are much more open to even funding the idea and the entrepreneur’s execution capabilities. Entrepreneurs, in turn, shouldn’t be avaricious, and look to work with investors who have domain expertise.

On a parting note, Jouf humbly mentions that he still has a lot to learn about finance. For a company that has changed the way transactions are done in 17 countries, we keep our fingers crossed to see how things pan out in the next few years.

Listen to the podcast on the following links:

1. iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/bh/podcast/startups-middle-east-with-evrim-persembe/id1347175812

2. Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/startups-middle-east-with-evrim-persembe

3. Website: http://startupsmiddleeast.com

4. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/startupsmiddleeast/

7 years ago
Top 3 things to consider while choosing a payment gateway for your business
Mohab Ecommerce 0

Top 3 things to consider while choosing a payment gateway for your business

Whether you are selecting a new payment provider or looking to replace your existing one, you would want an efficient, versatile product that fits your budget. You do not want a provider who regularly gives you problems and puts extra workload on your support team. Overall, your choice of an online payment gateway could impact the overall customer experience on the website and also the way you receive money from customers. So lets look at what are the main things to consider while finalizing on a payment gateway.

Things to consider before choosing your payment provider

  • What matches your business needs – classic or modern-

The basic difference between the two types of gateway is the merchant account. While the classic payment gateway requires you to have a merchant account so that it can transmit money into your account, a modern payment gateway does not. The modern ones draw funds directly from the customer’s bank account or credit cards and after validating them, deposits it directly into your account. Even though the modern payment gateways require you to do very less in order to use them and receive money from your customers, they mostly charge a larger transaction fee and also drive customers another website for making the payment, which could lead to lesser conversion. Also classic gateways are considered to be much safer and secure, hence a better choice for bigger businesses. They also charge a lower transaction fees. Find out what aligns with your business first.

  • Which payment modes and currencies do you want your payment provider to support?

You most probably know which countries you are selling to most and the currencies that your customers like to pay in. So the first thing to check is – does your payment gateway support alternative payment methods such as Sadad in the Middle-east. It only makes sense to choose a payment gateway that makes it easier for customers to pay through a mode which they are most comfortable with. Hence check which are the payment methods that the payment gateway of your choice support. A gateway like PayTabs supports multiple currencies and offers several alternative payment options.

  • How secure is the payment gateway?

Every online and ecommerce business that accepts online payments faces the risk of fraud and chargebacks. Both of these can hurt the business and hence it makes sense to go with a payment processor that offers secure transactions. This is probably the most important factor that should make you for or against a payment processor. Fraud is the first thing you will want to fight and want to protect your customers against. Hence make sure your payment gateway is secure, very secure. This means it should at least comply with PCI Data Security Standard and must be integrated with 3D secure. Level 1 PCIDSS compliance means that the gateway has achieved the topmost level of security and deals with more than 6 million transactions every year.

Apart from implementing these market research tips, you should also look at fee structures of major payment gateways. Make sure there are no hidden charges. Check for their transaction failure rates as well.

Conclusion

Your payment provider is the “better half” of your online store. You should use your customer’s needs, your business needs, and general essential security requirements to select a payment services provider for your eCommerce site. It goes without saying that choosing the right payment gateway can go a long way in helping your business. If you have any further questions about which payment gateway is the best for your business, mail us at [email protected]

7 years ago
Four Pillars of a Solid eCommerce Customer Experience
Mohab Customer Experience 0

Four Pillars of a Solid eCommerce Customer Experience

Is there a thing like loyalty when it comes to online shopping? In a world driven by discounts, sales, comparison shopping and endless scrolling, it is difficult to grab customer attention. The same sellers present their wares across multiple sites. So people move to check each site to see where the particular product is available at the best discount. In such a scenario, does customer experience really matter?

It matters more than you think. Imagine this – discount can’t be a competing factor because everyone is offering a lot of it. What matters then is customer experience. In fact, customer experience is considered to be a product in its own right.

In order to decipher what type of experience your customers are looking for, it is important to understand their journey and understand what they need at each touch point. Most companies try to concentrate on the customer life cycle which is a complex task, especially with omni-channel marketing. Instead, experts now suggest keeping focus on one customer journey at a time.

Here are the four pillars of a customer experience journey

  1. Make it simple to use

Buying from an eCommerce website should not feel like rocket science. You need to make it intuitive for customers to browse through your product range and get to a sale point. Most eCommerce shops follow a set pattern from discovery to the sales funnel to after sales service.

But a new app on the horizon – Elanic, is doing things differently. It has included an intuitive chat feature that allows buyers and sellers to interact before closing the sale. The chat is pre-programmed with common questions from the buyer like quality, size, condition of the product and more. This strategy is also followed by sites like OLX which sells seconds. In addition to the public comment feature, the site also allows customers to make an offer. The whole process is intuitive and automated which makes it easy to handle. Many sellers vouch that this feature has helped them close sales effectively.

  1. Make it personal

This strategy goes beyond knowing your customer’s name and saying ‘Hey xyz’ in your email. According to Campaign Monitor, 96% visitors to your website aren’t ready to buy. But they’ve shown some basic interest in what you have to offer and may probably come back if you communicate properly. Use retargeting to encourage users to pick up from where they left off. And don’t forget to inform them when the products they want are on sale.

  1. Stop them from abandoning cart

In 2016, as much as 69% of carts were abandoned! Can you imagine the billions lost because eCommerce portals did not work hard enough to push the sale? Constantly use A/B experiments to test what makes users stick or leave your website. In case they still abandon cart, make sure you send them a customized email reminder to pull them back

  1. Use the right payment gateway

Other than being secure, the right payment gateway will allow customers to pay in their own currency, using the wallet they prefer without making them work too hard. And of course, it should aid express checkout.

Conclusion: Don’t forget to constantly ask your customers for feedback and also incentivize them for providing it. There is no better way to enhance your customer experience than listening to them carefully – after all they are the heroes and champions for your brand.

8 years ago
Selling to international customers? How to cross borders with PayTabs
Mohab Customer Experience 0

Selling to international customers? How to cross borders with PayTabs

With the advent of internet and eCommerce, selling in your backyard is equated with selling in another country. The medium of sale is the same – your website. But then comes the actual legwork of ensuring your product reaches its customer and the money reaches your bank account. There are a lot of minor but significant factors at play here. Marketing, packaging, currency conversion, shipping, taxes, local duties and more make a small business wonder if they are really capable of taking on the complex world of export trade.

Depending on what you are selling, you’ll need partners in each of these spheres who can support you when you start (when the business may not be much but you’ll need the same degree of professional support) and continue supporting you when your business expands and you need high-tech support points.

If you are thinking of taking your products to international shores, here are a few things to keep in mind before you cross borders

  1. Identify markets for your products

Though you may already have a rough idea of where to start, it is always good to back business decisions with data. Where possible, find out about competitors selling in the market and what their on-ground sales have been like. This allows you to make a fair projection of what your sales can be. Now you’ll be able to prioritise markets where you need to enter first based on the expected sales volume.

A successful initial entry matters a lot. It gives you the confidence to push forward and also helps convincing future clients that you sell quality products that are accepted in multiple countries.

For example, the food import laws in several countries are quite stringent. You’ll not only need FDA clearances but also ensure your packaging has all the relevant information that is mandatory for the particular country. During your application, you may even have to specifically mention countries where the particular item has been refused entry.

  1. Identify a local distribution partner / retailer

Many start-ups may not have the means to set up a local office unless the conditions are proven viable. For initial market entry, it is best to go with a local distribution partner. These channel partners should be experienced personnel who can give you a taste of what your future sales can look like. They can also be your resource who can provide intelligence on how to tweak things and make it work.

  1. Understand generic laws and tax laws in each country related to products shipped from your country

Even if your product is sold in a particular international market, there may be specific laws applied to products that are shipped from your country. This may include but not limit to taxes, duties and other general laws on quality and quantity.

  1. Identify a shipping partner

Shipping is a biggie. First, you need to get the packaging right which is acceptable to the country you are shipping to. Second, you need someone who has a reputation for timely delivery. Third, you need to work with someone who can initially deliver small quantities and then grow with you to deliver bigger shipments when your market expands. Lastly, shipping costs can eat into your profits, so you’ll need to calculate the shipping partner who provides all of the above at good rates.

  1. Identify a payment partner

After all the groundwork, you’ll need to guide your hard earned money to reach your bank account. For this you’ll first have to ensure that the payment service provider works with multiple countries and currencies, intuitively adds in the most popular wallets in the country, provides easy APIs and makes transfer easy and allows invoicing even if you are on the go. A tall wish list but entirely possible. Sign up for a free demo account here.

There are many things about international sales and export trade that one can learn only from experience. Success isn’t final and failure isn’t fatal if you have an experienced partner to support your journey.

8 years ago