22 December 2021 01:41 am Views - 84
WEBXPAY team Starting from Left Tamir Illyas (Director Marketing) Krishan Samarasinghe (Director Business Development and Operations) Omar Sahib ( Founder/ CEO) Natalie Ferdinands (Project Manager) Anuradha Bandara ( Senior manager Operations)
By Nishel Fernando
WEBXPAY, a pioneer in the Sri Lankan fintech space offering seamless payment gateway options for businesses was recognized with the Merit Award in the “Business Model Innovation” Category(FITIS) at the recently concluded FITIS Digital Excellence Awards organized by the by the Federation of Information Technology Industry of Sri Lanka (FITIS).
With a short span of six-years into operations, WEBXPAY has been able to position itself as a top payment gateway solution provider in the country by enabling business to move into growing e-commerce space with its diverse mix of solutions that’s tailor-made for both big or small businesses based on their requirements while catering to evolving needs of businesses in staying ahead latest trends.
The company was also first Sri Lankan payment gateway aggregator and it maintains its position as the most diverse payment gateway solution provider by engaging with global payment brands such as Visa, MasterCard, China Union Pay, American Express, Discover, Diners Club, WeChatPay, and AliPay while also connecting with digital payments options offered by local financial institutes which includes DFCC virtual wallet FriMi, Upay, Genie, Ezcash, Mcash, Lanka QR, and Sampath Vishwa.
WEBXPAY, CEO/Founder, Omar Sahib recently sat down for a discussion with DailyMirror to share some of recent developments of the company, trends in e-commerce sector while revealing some of future prospects plans of the company.
The following are the excerpts of the discussion:
How does WEBXPAY differentiate from the others in offering innovative digital payment solutions to business In facilitating business to move into e-commerce ?
We offer over 15 payment options unlike any other player in the market and we are the only equated monthly installments (EMI) aggregator in the market that offers buy now and pay later options to merchants and we already have five banking partners connected with us . We are the online payment solution gateway provider that offers EMI options with these five banks offering the business with the capability to increase their sales exponentially. Instead of reaching out to multiple banks exhausting time, money and energy , the businesses can conveniently obtain multiple EMI options from us. As the consumer affordability has been impacted by the rising inflation due to the present economic climate, it allows the consumer to increasing their buying power with buy now pay later options. On top of it, all of these payment tools are available on a single QR should a business needs to accept payment through a delivery partner, thus avoid COD handling fee.
We also maintain strict criteria in on boarding new merchants. We conduct a proper KYC on every business as we want to ensure that they deliver what they have promised to their customers.
How has COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the digital payment industry?
With the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years, we have observed digital payments becoming a commodity. As businesses had to close their brick and motor operations time to time, the online presence became critical for business to continue their operations and at the same time their customers also got used to making online payments. This realistion has led business to incorporate an online presence in their business models on a permanent basis. With this, we have seen a surge number of business seeking our support in setting up payment gateways for e-commerce operations.
Can you share the significance of recent recognition that your firm at the FITIS Digital Excellence Awards ?
This was one of the first instances a Digital Excellence Awards held, in the country in particular, recognizing early adopters who has transformed the country’s digital landscape from 3.0 to 4.0. This was also the first instance we proactively applied for an award as we relaised that we have been doing something quite unique while continuously evolving.
FITIS had a vert strict criteria in evaluation process in deciding bushiness eligible for the awards with over 300 applications being received . Out of these 300-odd applications, only 38 became recipients of the awards. The business model innovation category recognized the solution providers that has built innovative business models or reconfigured existing business models based on consumer insights in order to businesses to enable transformation ultimately leading to a growth In their performances.
What’s your advice to a business in choosing a payment platform solution provider to engage in e-commerce?
They should factor in credibility as well as solutions offered by the provider. The offering must include a diverse options of payment enablers . For an example, our discount gateway feature allows a business to run a specific discount with a bank as we have the capability to calculate these discounts on a specific bank payment card automatically. So the businesses do not need to exhaust to their invest time and money in major developments to incorporate an urgent promotion.
Therefore, Before choosing a certain platform, businesses need to consider whether the platform service providers are equipped with capabilities that enables them to up sell their products. The features offered by a payment platform has to be the features that actually enables the business to grow their sales. For an example is our EMI option which allows merchants to increase their margins by selling high-ticket size items.
The customers could move out unless the businesses fails to come up with convenient payment options , so, the merchants also need to identify a solution provider that constantly evolves. We heavily invest in our technology to expand our reach and the customer offering of our merchants
What are your future plans?
Looking into immediate future, the company is eyeing new developments to be an omnichannel payment solution provider.
What’s your view in enabling cryptocurrency payments?
I believe the future mostly will be digital. That’s the direction whole world is heading towards, although, there are some pushbacks in some countries.
Especially, buying power of crypto holders are growing due to recent uptick in inflation. There are many crypto investors globally as well as in Sri Lanka, so we need to give them an opportunity to spend their holdings , that’s a way to grow our economy by bringing these funds back in to the mainstream financial system. They regulators needs to consider this. I would say we should accept cryptocurrency payments without any delay. If you do not open up all those crypto holders to spend their holdings, in purchasing goods or services such as travel and hotel bookings. Although, their holdings would continue to grow, but it wont be spent here in the country.
Once the proposed framework on Cryptocurrency payments are come into effect, we are ready to incorporate this allowing our merchants to accept cryptocurrency payments from their customers.
Any final thoughts?
I would like to thank FITIS nomination committee for choosing us for the recognition. I would also like to extend our gratitude to our banking partners, VISA and Master Cards principals as well as other strategic partners who made it possible for us by encouraging on our new developments. In particular, I would like to extend a special thanks to our merchants who made it possible for us by adopting new technologies. If they didn’t adopt to new technologies, we wouldn’t have a business. They have embraced the change and successfully managed to upgrade their business to brick and motor to a wider online market while always prepared to constantly grow to expand into a wider market instead of limiting themselves within geographical boundaries.