#4 on the Top 100 Startups In The Arab World 2017
October, 2017: PayTabs recognized as #4 on the Top 100 Startups In The Arab World 2017 list by Forbes Middle East.
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Cashless in India
Sleepless in Seattle: Remember the Hollywood movie from the 90s starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. As it turns out, it was not a very happy story, as the protagonist grieves his wife’s death and he cannot sleep after moving base from Chicago to Seattle.
On the contrary, given the Digital India revolution and the growing adoption of multiple forms of digital payments in India, it is definitely a good time to be Cashless in India. The current revolution of digital payments stretches much beyond being only as a result of demonetization. The consumer’s adoption rate couple with the government’s push in creating a cashless economy has been unprecedented.
Despite all the hoopla around digital payments and going cashless, India still remains low in banking penetration and cash has been the de-facto transaction medium for most in the country. Hence the scale of the revolution is yet to realize its full potential. The government’s continued push towards digitization through BHIM, UPI and Payments Banks has really scaled the digital payments landscape in India. It’s all about financial inclusion through digitization. Needless to say, there’s a lot of ground to be covered, given India’s population but the growth trend puts the country on track to achieve its digital payments ambitions.
You must be wondering that if there’s so much action happening in the domestic digital payments space in India, what about international digital payments? Well, the scope on the international payments space is exciting as well from an Indian perspective. India is one of the fastest growing markets for cross border payments, recording an estimated volume of $260 bn+ in exports and $400 bn+ in imports*.
We at PayTabs provide you with a seamless payments solution that helps you accept payments in multiple currencies and the amount gets credited to your account in INR. Sign up for a free demo to experience the power and flexibility of our solution.
*Data Source: Economic Times
Realizing the Potential of E-Commerce in Philippines
Philippines has always been ahead of the curve in ASEAN when it comes to embracing mass market technologies. First it started with SMS, and then came Facebook penetration, which is really high (50% +) in Philippines, as per recent studies.
What’s the future for Philippines?
Well, all indicators point out that Philippines is ripe for an e-commerce boom. E-Commerce is projected to grow at a 10 year CAGR of 34% with e-commerce accounting for 4.7 % of total retail in the country*. The Asia Pacific nation has witnessed a large number of merchants taking to e-commerce to sell their goods locally and globally without really pumping in capital. It is a classic case of e-commerce adoption by merchants.
The ingredients for a massive e-commerce boom are already in place in Philippines. It is not just SMS & Facebook penetration. Smartphone penetration in the country stands at 117%, which is among the highest in the world, according to IDC research. The rise of smartphones in the Pacific Island nation is a good ingredient for sustaining a strong and robust mobile commerce landscape. Mobiles will play a key role in e-commerce growth in Philippines, as not many can afford laptops.
As a testimony to the potential to mobile commerce, 60% of shoppers on Lazada, shop through the mobile^. Lazada is Philippine’s largest online marketplace. While releasing an e-commerce roadmap for the country, last year, Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry has pointed out that the country’s 930k+ MSMEs are being urged to leverage e-commerce to tap the global marketplace and achieve business growth. The pacific island nation’s government has been pushing MSMEs to enter the global value chain & gain global market access via e-commerce.
This goes to show that Philippines is poised to make a huge mark in the global e-commerce landscape. As MSMEs from the country seek global market access through e-commerce, we at PayTabs are committed to Philippines by providing a truly global payments solution, which keeps international payment worries at bay for merchants in Philippines. Sign Up for a Free Demo to experience the true value of PayTabs.
*Data Source: Report by Google & Temasek
^Data Source: ASEAN 2017: Prosperity for All Summit
Starting Your E-Commerce Business: Key Points
Worldwide e-commerce sales is projected to grow to $4.5 trillion* by 2021. That’s almost double the current value. While at the face of it, the value seems mind boggling but it doesn’t come as a surprise because globally, e-commerce has been witnessing staggering growth, propelled by the sprouting of various e-commerce startups across the world.
Considering the growth of the industry, it is a lucrative proposition to start an e-commerce enterprise. Hence, if you have an idea and are willing to navigate through the challenges of building and running your own e-commerce enterprise, here are the key points you need to keep in mind:
- Name & Registration: Choose a name for your business that separates you from the competition. Do a corporate name search to ensure that the name you have chosen is not in use. You would need to register the name and select a business structure for your startup, it can be a sole proprietorship/partnership/LLC/Corporation.
- Domain name & Website: Ideally, your business name should be the domain of your e-commerce site. If the domain is not available, chose a domain name, that’s easy to spell and pronounce.
- Banking Regulations & Identification number: Make sure you have your company’s identification number, as per the respective country’s law and ensure that you open up your company’s bank account. These are generally for tax & corporate records purposes.
- Business Licenses and Permits: Check the operating licenses that you require to run an e-commerce business in your country and ensure you have all the licenses in place before starting business operations.
- Find the right vendor: If you are going to running a marketplace, then you wouldn’t need a vendor for products that you would sell. But if it’s a standalone e-commerce platform, you would need a long term commitment from a vendor for supplies/raw materials or products.
- Inventory: Make sure you have stocked your inventory. It would help tremendously, when your orders come through. You should be able to provision for x number of order and ship on time.
- Logistics and Delivery: It is imperative for any e-commerce to have the logistics and delivery sorted. It is not only delivery for your customer orders but the delivery of your supplies that need to be streamlined as well.
- Technology & Software: Having the right shopping cart plugin or building your own shopping cart is a must for any e-commerce site, the experience of your customer while shopping on your site, depends on your cart. Additionally, you need to ensure that you gradually invest in productivity software such as email marketing, CRM, etc…
- Marketing: To start off with, use all digital marketing mediums, especially social media to spread the word about your business and drive sales. Prepare blog posts and social media properties well in advance.
- Compliance: Your business will grow at the speed of light, but you must be mindful of the fact that you follow the regulations as per compliance, i.e. reporting annual results or quarterly results to regulators. Even the annual fees for your business permits and licenses. Do not ignore any aspect of being a compliant and legal e-commerce site.
Last but not the least, for transactions to occur on your e-commerce site, you would need a payment gateway to be integrated with your website. Sign up for a free demo to unlock the value that we can provide for your e-commerce venture, as a comprehensive payments solution provider.
*Data Source: Statista
PayTabs: Adding Value to Your Business
In one of our earlier post, we touched upon the factors that set PayTabs apart as a payment solutions company. We looked at the existing gaps in the payments processing industry and how does PayTabs bridge the gap.
Today, we are looking specifically at some of the business problems that PayTabs can solve for your business, as a comprehensive payments solution company:
- Global Business: Your business attracts customers from across the world and it is imperative for you to have a payments solution that processes multiple currencies and offers a seamless experience with your customers. Well, PayTabs has you covered as we can process 160+ currencies on our platform.
- Grow your business: Whether it’s multiple channels, schemes, acquiring banks, multiple shopping cart platforms, security infrastructure and systems, risk management and merchant services, we have you covered in all aspects in the context of building, operating and growing your e-commerce business.
- Data Security: In a world that is constantly threatened by cyber-crime, it is imperative for you to ensure that you customer’s data is protected. We have the highest level of PCI-DSS compliance apart from having dual layers of fraud management infrastructure in place.
- Technology Worries: When you are setting up your e-commerce business, you are determined to get the technology right, with respect to every aspect of your business. We understand technology and the need for agile delivery, hence we have the ability to quickly integrate our solution to your backend, irrespective of the type of backend you have.
- Build Competitiveness: We understand that the e-commerce industry is highly competitive across the world; we can help you grow your business & help you become competitive and profitable at the same time. We believe in complete transparency and hence we do not have any hidden charges.
To experience the power and the flexibility of our solution, you can sign up for a free demo or contact us. Moreover, if you wish, you can subscribe to our blog alerts to keep abreast with the latest from the world of payments and e-commerce.
