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Payment gateways in Egypt

The ultimate Egyptian merchants guide

40 Million Egyptians have access to internet, around 10% of them purchased something online in 2014, mainly electronics and air tickets, the majority of Egyptians are below the age of 35. Google announced that 82% of smartphones users in Egypt researched a product or a service on their phone. Despite all of this the eCommerce penetration in Egypt is still very low for many reasons. Users here in general still don’t trust online purchasing, no clear regulations were announced from the government yet to protect online buyers and sellers, many Banks don’t offer to their customers the ability to buy online using their credit cards, etc..

One of the major challenges for merchants to sell online is how they will get paid, Cash on Delivery is still on the top of all other payment methods in Egypt, but with the rise of new online payment gateways, it is expected that in 2016 Egyptian online buyers will start to make online payments more than before. In this article we’ll highlight the available payment gateways in Egypt to help Egyptian merchants find the best solution to get paid.

 

 

1- Egyptian Banks Payment Gateways:

 

1. Arab African International Bank (AAIB)

An acquiring internet payment gateway that will provide merchants and their clients a secure online payment process by accepting MasterCard, Visa and other major credit cards. Built on top of MIGS (MasterCard payment gateway), AAIB has been the preferred payment gateway for merchants for a long time. The good news, they started to support 2.5-Party Payments Integration Model (Merchant Hosted with 3D Secure) as well as recurring payments which will be a perfect solution for merchants with a subscription-based model. AAIB has been in the acquiring business since the early 80’s which allowed them to gain extensive experience and maintain exclusive long standing relationships with reputable prime merchants.

 

2. NBE eShopping

National Bank of Egypt provides this service since 2002 to allow merchants to accept online credit card payments, like AAIB, the National Bank of Egypt uses MIGS (MasterCard payment gateway) in addition to Cybersource (VISA payment gateway). As one of the biggest banks in Egypt, NBE is trusted from merchants and buyers, till now NBE provides only 3-Party Payments Integration Model (Bank Hosted Payment Page), with the ability to customize a little bit the payment page to match the merchant branding.

 

Bottom Line:

Using a bank gateway to get paid is the most widely used solution in Egypt, the customers in Egypt trust banks more than any other payment gateway. Both banks mentioned above apply almost the same rates and fees and they are using similar technology. AAIB has presented new solutions as mentioned, but no doubt NBE will be providing the same features soon. Both banks charge you a monthly subscription plus a percentage from each transaction.

 

 

2- Payment Service Providers

 

1- Payfort

Payfort is an online PSP (payment service provider) for the Arab world that provides new innovative solutions for online merchants to get paid. As a tech company and unlike other solutions provided by Egyptian banks, Payfort is focusing more on the technology and the user experience to be its edge. Payfort provides 4 different payment solutions:

1. Online Payments: merchants can accept online credit card payments globally to more than 80 currencies, with their one page checkout no redirection to a third-party site is made which increase conversion rate as well as eliminating shopping cart abandonment .

2. Pay@Home: A collection service made by Payfort where the customer place an order on the merchant’s website then Payfort contact the customer and send an agent to collect the payment and instantly the merchant is notified that payment is done. A good solution for users who don’t want to pay online.

3. Pay@store: Another way to receive money, after placing an order on your website, payment voucher is presented to your customer which he can use to pay at the nearest store with a Fawry machine, and merchant will be notified once the payment is done.

4. Installments: A unique feature in Payfort is Installments, where customers can pay for their purchases on monthly installments, without contacting the bank and directly from your website. This service works only with 2 banks in Egypt now, but Payfort is working to get it working with more and more banks..

 

2. Paypal

Last May the giant payment gateway started to let Egyptian merchants accept online payments from 203 different countries around the world. For the first time Egyptian merchants can now sell their products globally and  withdraw their money to any local Visa card. Paypal allows merchants to get paid from their customers through their Paypal accounts or through credit cards.

Paypal is very easy to integrate with any eCommerce website thanks to its plugins and extensions for all major eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce and Magento.

Paypal provides to your customer the following payment methods:

1. PayPal Balance

2. Instant transfer from their bank account (International customers only)

3. PayPal Credit

4. PayPal Cards, like PayPal Extras Card or PayPal Smart Connect. (International customers only)

5. Debit card

6. Credit card

7. eCheck (a delayed transfer from your bank account – may result in significantly slower shipping by seller, for International customers only)

Also Paypal have a solution for freelancers, as they can send online invoices to their customers via email.

 

3. 2Checkout

2Checkout is a leading global payment platform that allows merchants to accept online and mobile payments from buyers worldwide, with localized payment options. Capabilities include a pre-integrated payments gateway, merchant account, PCI compliance, international fraud prevention, and integration with more than 100 shopping carts. like Paypal, 2Checkout doesn’t settle the payments directly to your account, alternatively payments are made to 2Checkout then transferred from 2Checkout to your local account, it supports transactions in 197 countries through different payment methods like:

1. Hosted Checkout:  a simple payment form that gives customers the appearance that they are still on your site while providing all the benefits of a hosted checkout solution.

2. Payment API:  Fully control your checkout experience from the beginning to the end. With the new Payment API, 2Checkout empowers you to include their payment processing power directly into your website.

3. Online shopping carts: 2Checkout partners with most of the popular online shopping carts and invoicing systems for simple integration with 100+ integrations available.

4. Recurring Billing: Whether you offer a membership or subscription, 2Checkout’s recurring billing optimizes your checkout experience and grows customer retention. Your customer will enter his credit card info for the first time only, and then payment is deducted automatically monthly (or any other period you specify)

 

Bottom Line:

If your main concern is technology, user experience and easy integration, then PSPs are your best solution, they provide APIs and plugins for most of the eCommerce platforms and invoicing systems, their support is much better than banks. Paypal and 2CO don’t charge you any monthly fees, they charge you a flat fee + percentage from each transaction, Payfort charges a monthly fee (they have 2 plans) in addition to a percentage on each transaction.

 

 

3- Sell online, get paid offline

 

1. Fawry

Fawry is a payment service customers can use through banks, post offices and a nationwide network of retailers. Services range from bill payment to Internet and mobile banking. The company employs 250 people and has already collected more than $220 million. Fawry provides solutions to service providers, retailers and banks, its strongest advantage is helping businesses to increase their points of collection. Mashable added Fawry to its list of African startups to watch

 

2. Bee

Bee specializes in providing fast, easy and reliable Payment Solutions for a multitude of services. Like Fawry, Bee is another solution that let your customers purchase from your website or mobile application, then they’ll be provided a voucher that they can use to pay at the nearest store that have Bee machine, and through integration you’ll be notified instantly to proceed with your customer’s order.

 

Bottom Line:

Fawry and Bee are the best solution for customers who don’t have credit/debit cards that can buy online, as well as teenagers. Both have a wide network of collection points around the country. They still have a lot of improvements and new features that shall be done.

 

How To Choose:

 

Choosing which payment gateway to include in your website / app depends on your target customers class, age, gender and location as well as the type of the product or service you provide and other factors, make sure to study all the alternatives and choose what serve your customers and your business best.

If you need any assistance or advise choosing a payment gateway feel free to send all your questions to cherif@viral21.com and i’ll be glad to reply to your questions and assist you in choosing the best payment gateway for your website.

 

 

Few
months ago our team decided to determine the core values of our agency together, in a
brainstorming-like session a lot of values were discussed and we agreed on 5: Innovation, quality,
outstanding service, commitment and learning.

“Define
what your brand stands for, its core values and tone of voice, and then communicate consistently in
those terms”.
Simon
Mainwaring

During
the past months we worked hard and closely with each other to keep up these core values. Since they
were chosen by us and not dictated by the top management, also because from the early beginning we set
our goal to be the leading agency in our industry these values were not set just to look cool on our
website, they were implemented in our day to day work, starting from our planning and work flow down
to smallest daily activity.

Quality
has been improved and still improving, the level of innovation reached its best, commitment has became
a regular behavior and we are still working on serving our clients in the best way we can. Overall
development of the agency has been noticed by us and our clients.

This
revamp was never possible without the fifth core value which is learning, but we figured out that till
now learning was done through individual initiatives. Each team member was learning more about his
skills, reading articles about the industry in general, which was good enough as a start, but learning
wasn’t still integrated in the agency workflow, so we decided to integrate it deeply.

“The
important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing.” – Albert
Einstein

 

In
our monthly meeting held this Monday, each one of us wrote his main 3 skills on a piece of paper, then
starting from this week each one of us will open an account on SkillShare, a great website for online courses, and will start
taking courses for those skills (luckily SkillShare had a great
offer this week). We opened a channel on Slack to share the courses together and to recommend courses
to each other. We believe that learning is the air to our industry, so whenever we stop learning we’ll
die.

We’re
very excited about this decision, and we are sure that the result will have a huge effect on our
quality and hence our clients will be served in a better professional way.

As the entire globe embraces the advancement of technology, setting up an ecommerce business seems to be an ongoing trend even to the progressive country of Egypt. Nowadays, Egypt is not only known for its rich ancient civilization history, particularly the Great Pyramid of Giza, but it is also becoming a promising venue for all kinds of entrepreneurs wishing to tap the world of the internet. With the growing number of internet users doing online transactions, many investors see this business opportunity in very positive terms.

 

 

Why does Egypt pose as an attractive market for ecommerce companies?

 

 

There are countless reasons why Egypt poses great marketability for investors wishing to set-up ecommerce stores; some of these reasons may include the following:

• – The cost to start a business in Egypt is generally low
• – Egyptians love to shop online
• – Average internet users in Egypt is around 3 million individuals
• – Overall penetration of ecommerce has already reached 8%; this is expected to triple by 2016 with an estimated value of $447.3 million expenditures on ecommerce only
• – WooCommerce continuous to be a top choice platform among newbie merchants due to its top notch integration system approach, which is perfect for service or product related business

 

 

Now, let’s dig deeper to the real score why WooCommerce is the ideal partner for any start-up ecommerce business:

 

• It’s absolutely free

Yes, this is definitely the best offer any budding online merchant could get from choosing WooCommerce; it’s free to download! If you have limited budget there is no reason why you can’t carry on with your goal of starting an ecommerce store. WooCommerce helps you to realize this dream.

 

• Flexibility

Another awesome advantage of using WooCommerce for your ecommerce business is the room for flexibility is endless, meaning even if you aren’t tech savvy you can still understand the technical side of this platform. Merchants have the freedom to do whatever they want on their product category, prices, independent attributes and a lot more. Apart from that, WooCommerce stores allow you to sell anything from physical goods to virtual, downloadable and even affiliate products.

 

• Open more doors to opportunities

Choosing WooCommerce as your platform can open more doors to opportunities outside your business’ goals. How? First, it helps you to set-up a full operational online store within an impressive website. Second, it allows you to integrate a blog section where you can post regular blog posts that can eventually increase your online visibility once online users are directed to your blogs. Last, your online store becomes a one stop shop, not only for goods or services that people are willing to buy, but also a perfect venue to get valuable information or sources of inspiration through the blogs you share.

 

• User-friendly interface

Another great deal for using WooCommerce is the user-friendly interface, since it’s a WordPress plugin. Anyone who knows how to navigate the WordPress could easily get acquainted with WooCommerce navigation features in a shorter period of time without much difficulty.

 

• Wide range of customization options

WooCommerce offers its users a wide range of themes via their WooCommerce Themes Store for free. You don’t even have to worry in the event you wish to change your chosen theme because it has a pre-set CSS styles and color themes.

 

• Establish professionalism

The moment you have successfully managed to set-up your ecommerce platform, you have the privilege to establish a professional image in your setting by using WooCommerce’s other features like order tracking and customer engagement tools, tax settings, inventory management and coupon codes. All these are geared towards helping you develop a more professional looking ecommerce store.

 

• Easy to manage Analytics tool

One of the tempting offers of WooCommerce is that the website owner doesn’t have to worry about tracking their online performance in terms of sales, inventory and customers. WooCommerce has taken full responsibility to cover all these concerns by providing merchants with a built-in analytic system feature that is easy to manage. Here, you can get verifiable statistic reports in the form of graphs that are easy to understand.

 

• Provide add-ons

Those who want to combine creativity and functionality will never be disappointed because WooCommerce understands the growing needs of each merchant. They have hundreds of WooCommerce extensions; some are free while others require minimal fees ranging from various applications like accounting, payments, marketing, reporting and others for your selection.

 

• Bigger possibility for growth

As I’ve mentioned, WooCommerce offers flexibility to ecommerce owners and alongside this is the possibility for growth and expansion. How is this possible? The platform gives you full rights on how you wish to set-up, run and manage your ecommerce store in the long run. It doesn’t matter one bit whether you wish to make modifications or improvements on your present set-up or not.

 

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it
works” – Steve Jobs

It’s true that experience is everything. In the digital age today, consumers
expect more from businesses. Designing an experience for your customers takes crucial work. It takes
critical thinking, substantial planning and continuous assessing to produce a well-crafted
experience. To provide an excellent customer experience is a challenging task, but also worth
taking.

What is designing customer experience and what is it about?

Designing a customer experience is about creating the right environment.
Customer experience is a product of good understanding of the customer behaviour. It is the integration
of technological innovations, strategy and support systems to address consumer necessities. A brands
customer experience advances by satisfying a set of customers, resulting for them to share your brand to
others.

How can a company achieve a great designing experience for their
customers?

Companies are to regularly search for ways to acquire and preserve customer
loyalty. The digital age is a battle for attention, but it will also be a battle for the best customer
experience offers. To waste someone’s time through inferior design would lead to loss of
customer confidence. It is always best to invest in the architecture of your customer
experience.

• Begin With the Right Foundation

Always begin by identifying your target audience. Know their needs, their
problems, their wants. People have different points of views, tastes and capabilities. Citizens of Egypt
have their own set of dilemmas. Focus on that. Navigate towards solutions. Establish your brand in
relation to that need. Impress in their mind that when the need arises, they will connect to your brand
in an emotional and adhesive way. The target audience in Egypt will have different likes and dislikes.
There is no exact way on how you can achieve the best customer experience, but there are excellent ways
that might help you.

• Track the Experience

Keep track of the experience from start to finish. Include entry points, exit
points, digital engagements, social media interactions and other activities. Take a hawkish view on the
integral activities, parts and keywords. Dedicate your focus on grasping a clear overview. Get a hold
from start to finish. Have a gestalt view to help you navigate the project for the better.

A common mistake many business owners make is not being future-oriented with
regards to customer experience.

Being future-oriented means that you’ll have to always look after your
customer. It is a customer-oriented mentality that is always on the lookout on what possible
circumstances could arise in the customer experience.

A good architectural framework for customer experience starts with the
acknowledgement that there will always be room for changes and improvements. Focusing on negativity is
never the course, focusing on the solution is what business is all about. A customer-serving mentality
leads you to establish the integrity of care and faithfulness to your calling. It will then lead to the
instituting better reputation and better relationships with your customers.

• Identify the Weak Points

When you track the customer experience, you will recognize which areas need
changes or improvement. As mentioned, the customer experience is a never-ending process. Continuously
make sure that you are on track to your goals. Stay ahead of the line by having a good grasp of your
company data. Seek ways to improve your service so you can boost customer loyalty. Turn valuable
insights into actions.

A robust experience-tracking tool will help you perceive redundancies,
inconsistencies, or inefficiencies in your system. Your outreach work to the Egyptian market will then
be more successful. Persistently seek to evaluate your procedures, invest resource and constantly learn
to achieve efficient and pleasurable customer experience.

Egypt is a growing market. It is rapidly evolving as a prime hotspot for the
business sector. This is why we see the country more often now on the lime light.

 

Ever thought of using social media as part of your marketing campaign program? The use of
social media could be totally demanding, especially if you don’t have a clear idea on how these
platforms work and how much time, energy and dedication you need to invest to see favorable results. In
fact, serious marketers try various strategies with their social media activities and experiment on what
will work best alongside their marketing goals. If you want to be in control of your social media
marketing, take time to read through these 5 effective social media management strategies.

• Regularly update all your existing social media accounts

If you find that you need to assume the responsibility of a social media manager, make sure
all your accounts are updated regularly like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other relevant channels. Let
your followers feel that there is a real person managing this particular outlet. Never create a social
media account and leave it idle for months without any signs of activity.

• Response to messages in a timely manner

 

If your main objective in joining social media networking sites is to improve your branding
awareness then respond to any message left by your followers in a timely manner. This is an effective
way to establish your credibility, whether you are in a service or product related business. It also
sparks a connection between you and your targeted audience. If you want your followers to see you as a
genuine individual, spend quality time to initiate a conversation around any of these areas:

• – Posts on your Facebook wall
• – Tagged quality photos
• – Your Facebook status update
• – Your direct messages on Twitter

Handle all comments, both positive and negative in a professional way. Never retaliate with
negative feedback.

• Post engaging topics to encourage interaction

It’s really quite complicated for any newbie marketer to easily find the right approach to
encouraging online interaction. How can you manage this particular social media activity? First of all,
it is vital that you add some creativity with every post you share on your social media profiles. If
possible, keep an editorial calendar of your posts. Use online tools that will make this task less
tiring like the Facebook scheduler, Hootsuite or Post Planner. If you found a viral topic being
discussed on social media channels, focus on it. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box when needed to
establish your true personality or brand image. When sharing posts or ideas, you can try following these
steps:

• – Start with an intriguing question.
• – Share your personal view on trending topics
• – Share a quote for the day, blog or any content that will inspire others
• – Ask feedback from your followers about your offerings
• Connect with real followers

 

It has been proven not only by famous personalities, leaders of organizations, entrepreneurs
and even ordinary individuals that social media has the power to influence the masses. Don’t just focus
on your marketing plan, but use social media as your instrument to connect with your real followers who
could eventually be part of your branding awareness campaign. Let your target audience see you as
someone whom they can rely on for advice. Remember, once you’ve established yourself as a credible and
knowledgeable resource with an impressive image, the pieces of your original business vision will start
to fall into place.

• Assess your actions

At the end of the day it’s absolutely crucial that you take a moment to assess your social
media strategy. Ask yourself this simple question: “Are my efforts providing the desired outcome?” Track
your social media activity through online tools like Google Analytics. You can also benefit from your
Facebook Insights where you can receive reports on who viewed your web pages or initiated a direct
call-to-action. Monitor your efforts on a regular basis, either weekly or monthly. In the event some of
your social media activities aren’t producing positive results, change your marketing strategy or move
to your back-up plan.

Taking on the role of social media manager can be challenging and time consuming, especially
if you don’t know where or how to get started. The above ideas are just a sampling of some best
practices you could try in order to optimize any of your social media accounts.

In the event you don’t have the time, energy or social medial marketing expertise, you can
always hire a professional marketer or marketing agency to do this particular task for you. In this
event, you should look for a reputable individual or firm that understands and values your marketing
goals.