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ZAPPER SOUTH AFRICA

Edging closer to a cashless world

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Convenience in the Palm of your Hand In just five years Zapper has changed the face of South African consumer convenience, as a game changer in the fintech sector Writer: Matthew Staff Project Manager: Josh Mann n an ever-changing fintech world, the need to remain flexible and open to diversification is critical, and few companies epitomise this ethos better in Africa than Zapper. Launching in 2013, the Company has evolved from relatively humble beginnings in the payment platform space, catering for the hospitality sector in the main, to a multi-faceted platform providing a multitude of merchants the ability to market directly to their own customers. In just five years, Zapper’s reach has broadened to more than 16,000 businesses across South Africa, each embracing the Company’s accessible business model, yet completely agile approach to continuous improvement. “These businesses have embraced Zapper as an alternative payment method and rewards platform,” adds the Company’s Head of Marketing

and Communications, Jessica Fowlds. “Zapper’s vouchering, loyalty programme and customer insights platform help businesses attract customers, while also providing a measurable, direct marketing channel. “More than one million people is a global fintech company that provides seamless all-in-one mobile use the app to pay in restaurants, payments, vouchering and loyalty fill up their cars with fuel, make services to a variety of businesses and donations to charity, pay bills brands across the retail, hospitality, and shop online.” bills, donations, fuel and convenience Such scope and widespread and ecommerce sectors. A disruptive application derives from a player, Zapper enables merchants to conscious business strategy use data-driven insights to better to make consumers’ lives and engage their customers, build retail interactions as convenient superior relationships and grow their businesses. and secure as possible; performing transactions without worrying about carrying physical cash or even using more traditional debit and credit cards. “We aim to create a lifestyle of convenience in the palm of your hand,” Fowlds affirms.

Fast, easy and secure payments

Zapper’s expansion over the past five years is perfectly represented by the remit and portfolio on offer in the present day, evidenced by five core pillars of service provision and consumer retention. Firstly, comes Zapper for the merchant, as Fowlds details: “Zapper integrates with a merchant POS system to generate a printed or electronic Dynamic QR code,

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Zapper generates a unique QR code for every transaction it processes, adding an important layer of security

which is scanned by a customer using the Zapper App to make a payment. Each QR Code generated is unique, containing invoice value and transaction-identity data related to specific purchases. Zapper allows businesses access to a digital marketing portal enabling them to gather rich data about their customers spending habits as well as communicate with their database. “Collectively, the Zapper Marketing Platform empowers merchants to deepen their relationship with their customers, sustainably gathering knowledge about their preferences, and enabling one-to-one communication that is personal and relevant.” From a customer acquisition perspective, merchants can be discovered by potential customers via the Zapper Nearby feature. And inevitably, the next stage focuses on retaining these attained customers.

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Fowlds says: “From a customer retention perspective, Zapper allows businesses to reward existing customers by sending vouchers directly to their Zapper app or by running a digital loyalty card. Zapper’s voucher distribution and redemption process is entirely seamless during the payment process. “Zapper loyalty programmes provide merchants with a technology leapfrog solution to customer acquisition and retention. Customers earn rewards for aligning with specific behaviours set by the merchant, with their cards updated automatically with payment in the Zapper app.” The loyalty card system comprises spend-based, visit-based or line-item loyalty cards which assist in increasing customer frequency, spend and product interest. On completion of a loyalty card, a customer is automatically rewarded with a voucher. Customers consequently have the ability to communicate with the merchant through Zapper’s Rate and Review functionality in real time, enabling merchants to respond immediately. Ultimate security is assured across each strand of the process, Zapper’s transactions processed by one of the most advanced fraud systems in the world. And ultimately this ensures overall satisfaction for the user.

DPO PayGate and Zapper are ideally positioned to expand payment options in Africa. Doing business in Africa is complex, especially for companies who have not had any prior experience of the continent. It is estimated that there are anywhere between 1,250 and 2,100 languages spoken across the continent, while some believe this to be more than 3,000 when considering local dialects. Add to this the nuances of the unique business cultures in each country, as well as a multifaceted regulatory environment, and it is easy to see why many businesses approach African expansion with caution. Choosing a payment service provider which can handle the complexities of cross border trade, regulatory challenges and which can offer on-the-ground technical support is one of the smartest ways to lower business risk for companies looking to grow their African footprint. A proudly African solution The DPO Group has invested heavily in providing local support, setting up offices across the continent and has established legal entities in 18 African countries with this set to grow to 28 by the end of 2018. The DPO Group collectively services more than 40,000 merchants throughout Africa and is now the biggest ecommerce payment service provider in Africa. The DPO Group has built a solid technical foundation which allows companies a common entry point to processing in Africa. No matter which country they trade in, or which currency they are using, or regulatory authority they are complying with, companies will enjoy a common interface with the same back-office support and the same fraud and

risk screening. The DPO Group offers African and international companies a PCI certified and GDPR compliant, pan-African payment service – an offering that significantly lowers risk and guarantees compliance. A stable partnership ideally positioned for new markets The DPO PayGate journey with Zapper began four years ago when the Company entered the South Africa market. Since then the companies have built on their relationship as Zapper not only won significant point of sale market share, but released their online payment solution for ecommerce websites. The opportunity for growth in Africa is significant. The DPO Group is signing hundreds of new merchants every month – many of which are international tourism and leisure groups expanding into the continent. In addition to this, African customers are comfortable with trying new payment options and are exceptionally mobile savvy. The DPO PayGate partnership with Zapper is ideally positioned to tap into the African business network and deliver services to a market hungry for reliable, fast and safe local and cross-border payments. The DPO Group’s vision to provide an accessible, reliable, secure and comprehensive payments network across Africa is perfectly aligned with Zapper’s goal of delivering innovative new services to a market poised for digital growth.

T +27 87 820 2020 E sales@paygate.co.za info@paygate.co.za www.paygate.co.za

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Fowlds concludes the list: “For the consumer, the Zapper mobile application allows users to make fast, easy and secure payments with their smartphone. Zapper’s reach extends across international borders including South Africa, the UK, USA and Europe; allowing for successful transacting across all major currencies. “Users have access to loyalty cards and vouchers within the app which makes paying with Zapper even more rewarding.”

At the forefront

Virtue of its multi-stranded functions and benefits, the Zapper app naturally attracts customers who are highly mobile, tech savvy and who have discretionary spend. Once again displaying an aptitude for diversification and trend adherence, the move has been away from its traditional hospitality focus, and towards other aforementioned

verticals including retail, fuel and convenience, ecommerce and bill payments. And from this vast outlook, the Company can then turn its attentions towards the capabilities of the app itself, applying modern and advanced ideologies to bring technological prevalence to each of the above sectors’ users. Fowlds offers a poignant example: “In an age of ever-increasing amounts of data, the ability to monitor, aggregate, process and drive business insights from this information is of critical value in all areas of business. This information allows Zapper to benefit merchants and users alike, as businesses can target loyal users with relevant marketing campaigns. “Zapper also continually monitors the uptake of new methods of payment in South Africa as well as loyalty-focused apps.”

“Zapper’s commitment to technical support and innovation will allow merchants access to continued improvements and new offerings, as well as a mature and stable platform. More importantly, Zapper can offer merchants excellent marketing value-adds that will assist them to grow their customer base and their revenue. DPO PayGate is looking forward to working with Zapper as they expand into Africa and we have every confidence that the offering will be a welcome payment addition for merchants across the continent.” Peter Harvey, Managing Director, DPO PayGate

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AURA

stablished in 1994, Cosoft has a proven track record in the restaurant industry in Africa, supplying leading restaurant groups and franchises with efficient and reliable software, hardware and backup service. Cosoft has developed an ecosystem of enterprise grade products and services, specifically designed for a niche segment of the hospitality industry Quick Service Restaurant groups and franchises. Their solutions include Aura Point-ofSale (counter or mobile), web and app ordering, centralised ordering software for call centres, driver tracking, delivery optimisation and cloud analytics. Solutions are fully integrated with Zapper. T +27 (0)82 453 0754 E leigh@cosoft.co.za

For 23 years we have walked the journey to success with Africaâ€™s most successful Quick Service Restaurant groups. Our software solutions improve customer experience, restaurant operations and bottom line profit. Contact Leigh on +27 (0)82 453 0754 or leigh@cosoft.co.za

Pay@ provides secure bill payment gateways for a diverse market of corporate, small and medium businesses and governmental institutions who trust Pay@ to deliver accurate, convenient and real-time payment options. For more information please visit www.payat.co.za

021 886 5557 info@payat.co.za FSP No 29423 PASA No SO 01037

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Recent additions to the offering have also comprised vouchers incorporated into the app, with loyalty cards coming soon after; making Zapper’s the only app in South Africa to address valueadded services in conjunction with payments and seamless redemptions. “Being a fintech start-up, there is a large requirement for ongoing investment in development to ensure that we continue to compete at the forefront of our industry,” Fowlds encompasses.

“Being A game-changer in the lifestyle, payment industry a fintech startEnsuring the smooth introduction of up, there is a large each new value-added function is a requirement for ongoing highly skilled and knowledgeable investment in development workforce, overseen by a management team of seasoned to ensure that we continue professionals comprising to compete at the forefront backgrounds in marketing, mobile of our industry” app development, payment

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Jessica Fowlds, Head of Marketing and Communications

processing and mobile encryption. “This enables us to complete large-scale transaction processing for businesses,” Fowlds notes. “We operate as a family and aim to make Zapper a

great place to work.” Keeping all elements of the Zapper hierarchy and operation content is no mean feat considering the rapid speed in which it is expanding. However, it is achieved largely through close collaborations with key business partners; the resultant combinations working together to deliver secure, interoperable, convenient payment systems to bring the Company closer to a cashless world. All our partners are pivotal to the operation of our business, from banks, payment gateways, POS companies, telcos and more.

Partner interactions are just a carry-on from one of Zapper’s key differentiators, in the form of its passion for people, and subsequent personability. Customer service has been at the forefront of the business since inception, borne from an understanding of how important it is to merge human characteristics, requirements and personalities with technology. Fowlds concludes: “Our team is passionate about helping each and every one of our merchants grow their businesses through Zapper. We believe

Zapper has recently added a voucher feature to its solutions

that our team is key to the success of the business; and our business is a game-changer in the lifestyle, payment industry. “From this point, we hope to be the leader in payments and loyalty within South Africa, creating ubiquity across all verticals related to a user’s everyday lifestyle. Our current goals are to grow our footprint within the retail sector, and to build better insights and superior relationships with our partners.”

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74 Armstrong Avenue La Lucia Ridge Durban South Africa Tel: +27 87 150 1001 sasupport@zapper.co.za