Dubai: PayFort, the Dubai-based online payment service provider in the Arab world, announced a new card-on-delivery service to allow merchants to pay using a credit or debit card.
The new service will first be piloted with Souq.com in the UAE before being rolled out to other countries across the region. PayFort will make the card-on-delivery service available to other merchants across the region at a later date.
“We are pleased to be able to continue innovating and delivering new services to the Arab world, allowing merchants across the region to make more and more payment options available to their customers,” Omar Soudodi, managing director of PayFort, said in a statement on Sunday.
According to the State of Payments 2016 report, about 50 per cent of consumers in the Arab world prefer to pay in cash and cash-on-delivery (COD) customers remain a significant segment of the Middle East’s eCommerce market. However, the percentage of card purchases is growing and many experienced online shoppers now prefer to use credit cards.
Consumer acceptance
The volume of online payments made in the Arab world could reach more than $69 billion of transactions per annum by the year 2020. According to the report, the region is seeing increased growth in consumer acceptance to pay online. Saudi Arabia and the UAE lead the region in online payments.
PayFort and Souq.com believe that the new service is another initiative that will help build trust in e-commerce and card payments among today’s COD customers.
“Our delivery agents will be able to process all major credit and debit cards using a mobile card machine,” said Ronaldo Mouchawar, Souq.com CEO and co-founder.
