By Mpho Sadiki, Managing Director, Merchant Services, Africa
Paying for groceries, school supplies for the year or your daily coffee at the stand outside your office used to be a very mechanical, arbitrary process. The transactional relationship between customer and merchant was defined by a few seconds of currency changing hands and nothing else.
Redefining the perception of payments, from being merely money changing hands to an opportunity to build trust and unlock growth, is a fundamental goal for us at Payfast. Digital Payments offer so much potential when it comes to making things smarter, more convenient and a bit more personal. South Africa’s retail and payment landscape is reshaping itself in the face of evolving consumer trends and an emphasis on digital-first commerce, and we need to make sure that merchants are not left behind.
The overall goal is to create a payment ecosystem that combines local insight with global expertise. The 2025 Global Digital Index (GDSI) reveals that people expect seamless, unified and personalised experiences across their shopping channels, with preferred payment methods and rewards as the top features that prompt customers to eventually click the ‘Buy’ button. That is possible through payment solutions that use technology to help build confidence in payments, empower merchants with increased flexibility and choice, and generally improve people’s lives as they live, work and transact in a digital-first world.
Going from analogue to digital
Small businesses stand to benefit the most from digital transformation. Research done by Mastercard shows that 90% of South Africa’s SMEs have adopted digital payments, with the most popular benefits being seamless supplier payments, more efficient multi-channel transactions and quicker access to revenue. SMEs and entrepreneurs are responsible for keeping South Africa’s economy moving, and by making payments more personal and accessible, we help them scale faster and compete in a crowded and ever-evolving market.
There are plenty of examples of this to be found at Payfast, like with women’s fashion brand Fenn Collection, which partnered with us in 2016 to invest in a reliable payment gateway for the business. Fenn Collection was in need of a payment solution that not only provided stability and security but also served as a platform for growth and offered insights into transactions and period-specific sales. Today, the business supplies to around 150 stores nationwide and has achieved regional and global reach, made possible by integrating all sales channels to enable scalability and deliver a seamless customer experience.
Like Fenn Collection, small businesses that embrace digital payments add a new, data-driven facet to their operations, which has turned out to be a non-negotiable to achieve success. Merchants who embrace a data-driven approach to decision-making and business development are the ones who will experience tangible growth.
Injecting convenience into finance
Today’s payment solutions need to align with consumers’ financial needs and expectations, who in turn want to define their payment amount, method and channel at points of purchase. Payfast has responded to this by offering multiple methods and payment channels within a single platform, whether online or in-person POS payments, thus delivering a solution that gives merchants flexibility and the confidence to grow, and gives their customers greater choice and enhanced convenience.
Whether it is card payments or instant EFT, QR codes or mobile wallets, store cards or cryptocurrency, there is a payment method for every customer. Using the Payfast suite of online and in-person POS solutions, merchants prove their versatility and customer-centric approach. By integrating new methods and cost-effective, mobile-oriented capabilities into their offerings, complete with customisable interfaces, merchants can provide the level of choice and seamlessness that consumers now expect.
That said, growing a business can be intimidating, and so we as payment providers need to offer solutions that are tailored to specific needs and circumstances. Easy Advance, Payfast’s business funding service, provides merchants with easy access to capital, with available amounts calculated based on real-time trading data. Merchants can receive pre-approved funding from their Payfast dashboard, mirroring the level of convenience and choice they offer their customers through different payment methods and omnichannel experiences.
Along with features on payment solutions such as repeat payment setting and expanded platform integrations, this is how payments become personal. It is a new kind of commerce, one that defines the future of business in Mzansi.
To get personal, we need to get smart
Innovation in financial services, particularly in the payments sector, is no longer characterised by simply adding more and more features to an existing product. To achieve real progress, payment providers like Payfast have to tap advancements in technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, both of which require a top-down rethink of how our solutions don’t just reinvent payments but also improve people’s lives.
Using AI, merchants can learn even more about their customers, tracking their purchasing behaviour and identifying trend patterns that can lead to elevated experiences. They can offer personalised payment options and targeted promotions, as well as enable their online stores with conversational commerce and integrations that lead to reduced checkout times and offer improved customer convenience.
Meanwhile, automating banking and payment processes such as invoicing reduces the amount of manual effort required by merchants, all while improving system and data accuracy. Automation is an exercise in optimisation and simplification, both of which benefit the business and its customers.
Both AI and automation represent a major advancement in how we make payments personal. With these solutions, we help empower merchants to deliver new choices and options to their customers, increasing consumer confidence and convenience, and tapping new opportunities for growth. It is how we build South Africa’s digital economy, one payment at a time.
