PayU, the payment gateway which processes the online payments for kalahari.com, notes that South Africans rate secure payment facilities as one of the most important considerations when shopping online.
As a company which prioritises secure payment solutions above anything else, PayU takes to heart the recent online shopping statistics released as part of the MasterCard Online Shopping Survey. Figures in this annual survey revealed that 90% of respondents indicated that secure payment facilities and convenient payment methods were the most important considerations when making an online purchase.
Nearly half of respondents say that their favourite online store is kalahari.com, followed by Groupon – and both the merchants are PayU customers.
PayU complies with PCI DSS Level 1 certification, one of the first payment gateways in the country to be certified.
The latest MasterCard Online Shopping Survey has revealed that a substantial 91% of South Africans who shop online are highly satisfied with their overall experience, a 4% increase from the 87% who said the same thing in the 2012 survey.
“This bodes well for small to medium enterprises entering the online market, as an increase in internet users will not just benefit the larger online stores, but ultimately spill over into smaller e-commerce sites as well,” comments PayU CEO, Mark Chirnside.
“It is a trend that we’ve already identified and which we as a company cater for in the form of PayU EasyMerchant, a product which provides SMEs with a hassle free way of integrating an ecommerce facility into their site.”
In the past year PayU has seen a steep increase in smaller companies entering the e-commerce sphere.
“As a payment gateway it is in our best interest to make sure the positive sentiment towards online shopping continues to grow,” says Chirnside. “We are doing that by providing exactly what local online shoppers want: safe and convenient online payments”