After witnessing tremendous growth over the last few years, contactless mobile payment app SnapScan says it is going beyond providing QR payment services.
It will soon launch its e-commerce service and a merchant solution, the SnapStore app.
The Cape Town-based financial services company says it has garnered around 1.3 million downloads across all app stores, with a high proportion of active users, since inception a decade ago.
SnapScan allows users to pay for goods and services by scanning a code displayed in store or with a bill, confirming the amount and approving the transaction via their phones.
The fintech platform, which was launched in 2013 by payments service provider Firepay, was acquired by Standard Bank in 2016 when the big-four bank bought a majority share of Firepay.
Since then, the market has become highly-competitive, with COVID-19 further driving a nationwide surge in use of digital payments apps, as more people opted for a safer way to transact during the lockdown.
Marin Cundall, CEO of SnapScan, tells ITWeb the payment platform saw a 300% initial increase in merchant registrations at the start of the lockdown period, as businesses were forced to go contactless and remote.
Its latest merchant app, SnapStore, is still in beta testing and will be officially launched alongside an enhanced payment offering in Q1 2023.
SnapStore allows merchants to make sales, track payments and manage transactions.
“We know that the payments landscape is highly-competitive and changing rapidly. The need to provide payment solutions beyond QR is evident,” notes Cundall.
“This is why we have spent time developing our merchant app, SnapStore, and our e-commerce solution and payment gateway, which allows businesses with a SnapScan account to accept online and remote payments from customers who don’t have the SnapScan consumer application. This is done either via a direct card payment, or using instant EFT.”
While the SnapStore app is part of SnapScan’s merchant offering, it is a separate app made available on the iOS and Android app stores.
While it is powered by Standard Bank, SnapScan works with all Visa, Mastercard and Diners cards, and makes payment settlements to any South African bank account.
According to Cundall, the company’s partnership with Standard Bank is a massive opportunity, as both parties work together to understand the local fintech ecosystem and how SnapScan can deliver more solutions to its SME customers.
“We’ve also been working on expanding our in-person payment offering to allow merchants to accept all payments from their point-of-sale device. More details to come on this soon.
“On the consumer app side we’ve given customers a reason outside of QR payments to use the app by creating a peer-to-peer wallet that allows verified users to withdraw the funds into their personal bank account, or use the funds to buy electricity in-app or pay at any SnapScan merchant.”
In May, SnapScan announced it had acquired local human resources (HR) and payroll start-up Radar for an undisclosed amount.
“We are planning to open up Radar’s HR functionality to SnapScan merchants soon. The company also has a very promising standalone offering and we have some exciting things in the works,” concludes Cundall.
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