Mobile payment adoption on the increase Small businesses face a number of challenges on their road to becoming sustainable enterprises. Not the least of these has been the problem of accepting card-based payments for services rendered at customer sites or at venues such as local markets, due to the relatively high cost of point-of-sale (POS) devices needed to process sales.   This however is rapidly becoming a thing of the past as more small businesses are embracing the technology of SnapScan and moving towards mobile payment solutions explains Vuyo Mpako, Head of Innovation and Channel Design at Standard Bank.  Specifically developed for the small business sector by Standard Bank, SnapScan has signed up over 12,000 small businesses nationally, in three short months. “As a financial institution serving thousands of small businesses, we believed that this was a major impediment to the future development and sustainability of small businesses. There was an urgent need to ...

Customers embracing digital payment solutions Vuyo Mpako Standard Bank’s new digital payment solution, has recorded over 70 000 registered users of SnapScan. The app is not only being downloaded, but users are actively embracing this technology, with Standard Bank reporting over 100 000 transactions being processed since launch in May this year.  SnapScan’s success is due to the fact that you don’t have to be a Standard Bank customer to enjoy the benefits of the app - anyone with a smartphone and a Visa or MasterCard can use it. According to Vuyo Mpako, Head of Innovation and Channel Design at Standard Bank, 29% of SnapScan users are Standard Bank customers and the rest are a split between the other banks. “We set out to create a convenient and innovative solution for South Africans, to give them greater control to transact in a way that fits in with their lifestyle,” says Mr Mpako.  The app’s winning formula lies in its simplicity. SnapScan uses Quick Read (QR) tec...

Standard Bank announces SnapScan – a game-changing mobile payment solution Standard Bank announced the launch of their mobile payment app, SnapScan. This is the bank’s first mobile payment offering that allows merchants to receive payments from their customers through a combination of a QR code and a secure PIN number. Vuyo Mpako According to Standard Bank’s Head of Innovation and Channel Design, Vuyo Mpako, “We are excited to bring such innovative offerings to all South African businesses. We created this app together with Stellenbosch-based IT agency, FireID in 2013, and it went on to win the 2013 MTN Business’ App of the year award. After extensive beta testing, we’re ready to take this solution to market.”  The challenge that many small enterprises face is the cost of setting up a POS machine combined with interrupted or unreliable connectivity, for example a small business trading at a Saturday market. SnapScan enables small business owners who wouldn’t normally qua...