The repositioning of the company has been brought on by research that shows that the overall percentage of internet users shopping online is not keeping up with the rate of growth in total users.
The number of online shoppers in South Africa grew from 2.1 million in 2012 to 2.3 million in 2013, up by 9.5%, according to the ‘2013 Online Shopping Behaviour Study for South Africa’ issued by MasterCard.
However, the South African online population grew by 17% from 12 million to 14 million over the same period, according to the Digital Media and Marketing Association.
Dan Edmiston, MD of MyGate, citing the MasterCard survey, states that security concerns are notable hurdles to ecommerce growth, with 42% of internet users surveyed citing security as the main reason which prevent them from shopping online, up by 4% from 2013.
Edminston has also claimed that one of the company’s aims is to make users buy via their smartphones, as well as increase the frequency of online payments being made by more experienced users by offering added convenience through products such as 1Click payments, batch payments and mobile payments.
The adoption of smartphones is the major reason cited for the growth in internet users, with approximately 92% of internet users owning a smartphone and 80.2% using their smartphones to access the internet, according to the South African Mobile Report published in March 2013.
MyGate provides its merchants with payment products that enable them to offer their customers alternative methods of payment to online credit card payment, such as debit orders, alternative credit facilities, and payment via EFT. Processing methods provided include online, MOTO, recurring payments and debit orders.
The company also offers a tokenisation system to eliminate the need for merchants to store customer credit card data.
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