“Customer behaviour has definitely been altered, and while there will be a resurgence of physical interaction, we believe that there’s been a permanent shift in the acceptance of e-commerce”, commented Mohammad Ali Yusuf (Mo), Vice President, Checkout.com – UK, while representing his organisation during an exclusive Q&A interview session with Daily NewsPK on the impact of COVID-19 on the financial sector.
1. How do you think the financial industry change post COVID-19?
Checkout.com has witnessed a rise in demand for digital goods and services over the course of the lock-downs in each country. We view this as having accelerated broader societal trends of shifting from offline to online commerce. Customers are choosing e-commerce as a way to shop while maintaining social distance. As a digital payments business, we are the obvious choice for businesses who are seeking to adapt to the new normal.
2. What measures have you taken to ensure lower health risks for your employees?
Checkout.com has been monitoring the situation closely and abiding by the latest health available from local governments and health officials, in all of the ten countries around the world in which we operate. This does, unfortunately, mean closing down many of our offices. Thankfully our business was built on cloud infrastructure, and we take advantage of instant messaging, video conferencing and collaboration tools. This means that our business can continue to operate optimally and provide the best levels of service for our customers.
3. How are you helping partners and customers cope with this crisis?
We’ve been doing all we can to support our e-commerce merchants and FinTech customers during these unprecedented times. For those merchants who have seen a downturn, we’ve worked quickly to improve their payment acceptance rates – ensuring that they are able to convert as many customers as possible. For those who have been fortunate enough to see a spike in traffic, we’ve been working hard to ensure that their payments infrastructure operates without disruption, while closely monitoring security and risk. We’ve also provided payment processing for a number of noble causes such as ‘10 million meals’. This is the UAE’s largest community campaign launched under the umbrella of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives. Its aim was to provide ten million meals to less fortunate individuals during Ramadan. RapidWard is another innovative cause which was launched to aid the distribution of antibody tests and Personal Protective Equipment direct from the manufacturer to those that need it most.
4. Do you believe this crisis is offering opportunities for digital business such as yourself and what steps have been taken to make sure you are on top of everything?
To call this an opportunity would be wrong, considering that this awful virus has impacted the lives of billions of people around the world. We think of this as serving to remind people of the benefits that come from everyday access to digital goods and services. In times like these, digital businesses can serve provide tremendous value to everyone, offering products and services without physical contact, delivered everywhere, even remote locations. We have invested to build the very best payments processing businesses – which focuses explicitly on digital businesses and FinTechs because we know that’s where the consumer is going. We have developed what is effectively and infinitely a scalable global solution to managing e-commerce and digital payments at scale.
5. Do you think future is completely digital or human touch will remain necessary for the masses?
During this pandemic, we’ve witnessed a rise in digital platforms and services. Customer behaviour has definitely been altered, and while there will be a resurgence of physical interaction, we believe that there’s been a permanent shift in the acceptance of e-commerce. Businesses will move to a hybrid model, offering omni-channel experiences to enable customers to engage on mobile devices and offer seamless payments.
About Checkout.com:
Checkout.com helps companies accept more payments around the world through one integration. The company works with global businesses to optimize their payments, with real-time data. Checkout.com’s unified global payment processing platform features in-country acquiring, relevant payment methods, feature parity across geographies, fraud filters and reporting features, all via one API. It helps businesses in Europe, the US, APAC, the Middle East and Pakistan to achieve faster, more reliable processing in more than 150 currencies, with direct access to Visa, Mastercard, American Express, all major international cards, as well as popular alternative and local payment methods. For more see: www.checkout.com
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