Zee Abbas, CEO of Payment Gateway, an e-commerce application service provider, discusses mobile payments and the launch of Payment Gateway
When I visited the 2013 Payments Awards at Millennium Hotel, I realised that there are some small businesses who rely heavily on new and upcoming processes in the payments industry. Their main source of income is not only transactions but also creating new areas of expertise in user acquisition.
This is something I was looking for, for a long time, as after years of working in the industry I was on a brink of trying my luck somewhere else due to lack of new products and creativity.
Gone are the times, when a sales channel used to focus on having low-end self-employed business development managers to get SME’s in some areas of the south east and west.
I am very much against this idea of having a commission-based, self-employed individual without anyone backing them up for their uphill task. In my view, creativity is very important in every aspect of business, whether it’s sales or any other department.
Without a creative approach, a business cannot last longer or attract customers. It’s very important that a creative approach must be adopted for any business to get new clientele and increase followers.
One of the most innovative things happening in the payments industry is the new approach and trend in mobile payments. As it says itself, mobile payments provide ways to use your mobile phone to pay for anything. However, it was realised after a long time that there could be hundreds of different methods where a user can pay using any smartphone handset.
Innovation has no boundaries and it can materialise anywhere providing the rules and regulations of this are followed. The best thing about it is the fact that it’s not a card reader but a complete pin entry device.
After proper research, I realised that this creative trend of finding new ways to use mobile payments started in China, followed by the US and then Western Europe.
One of the biggest concerns I have is the fact that we realised the mobile payments industry way after other Western European states who are not only implementing it very rapidly but also encouraging new SME’s to use their products, which will not only increase business but also create more clientele.
This whole scenario changed my thoughts about the payments industry and I realised that I need to come up with something very innovative and progressive with long term market standing so that it can generate value for money.
Keeping this in view, we launched our first mobile payments on 22 November 2013 in the London venue, Vanilla. Among the delegates at the awards were people from different ISO’s (International Standards Organisation) who not only applaud the product, but also our sales strategy as it overcomes other players in industry very easily.
The best thing about it is the fact that it’s not a card reader but a complete pin entry device (PED) with bespoke smartphone app combined with our 24/7 UK-based customer support desk for any technical issues.
This gave us a strong, client-focussed and innovative market standing in the UK, and I hope that we will bring more innovation to the industry using this platform. At this point, I would like to say congratulations to everyone in the industry as we are entering a new phase where innovation and creativity is everything.
Hopefully, we will be able to give the Chinese a run for their money in mobile payments acquisition, despite them getting a head start, and create tough competition for the rest of Europe.
