Payo has launched in the Philippines a platform that facilitates cash-on-delivery transactions for businesses selling online.
Ofri Kadosh, co-founder and CEO of Payo, says that in the Philippines, e-commerce revenues reached US$1.5 billion in annual revenues in 2016, and is projected to hit $5.5B in 2020. Meanwhile, the domestic e-commerce industry is expected to process 200,000 transactions monthly by 2019, according to Kadosh.
However, while e-commerce encourages cashless transactions, 93% of Filipinos still pay cash when buying online. That’s because only 8 percent of the population carry a credit card while 72% still do not have bank accounts. Thus, local merchants need to integrate COD in their online business model.
Unfortunately, COD transactions have become a challenge for many businesses, as logistics providers do not offer the service to small merchants. To help merchants hurdle this stumbling block, Payo has partnered with couriers such such as LBC, 2Go, Black Arrow Express, Ninja Van, Honest Bee, Zoom, Lalamove, and Dalasia.
“We know the struggle of businesses operating in the e-commerce space and what they have to contend with particularly when it comes to integrating cash-on-delivery in their payment process,” said Kadosh. “One of the main challenges are order cancellations, which happens to about 30 to 35 percent of their transactions. For merchants, this means an automatic loss in revenues.”
To help e-commerce businesses, Payo developed a platform that will allow for both the merchants and their consumers to experience better and faster COD transactions. It works as an interface that can be added to the merchant’s shopping carts. Once the consumers start placing their orders, a pool of data scientists will then process every sale, as well as to record and analyze the client’s order history.
To prevent fraud, Payo developed a consumer data analysis system that builds credit history for COD consumers and employs fraud detection to identify potentially problematic accounts, minimizing the incidence of cancellations even before the parcel leaves the merchant’s warehouse.
While the product is moving from the merchant’s warehouse to the customer, Payo’s olution can also be used to streamline the process of tracking the orders and communicating with customers for updates of their order. Once the delivery is successful, Payo can also monitor money collection and remit the earnings to the merchant.
What’s more, the data insights collected from all the deliveries drawn from Payo can be utilized as well to ensure early and immediate remittance to help merchants manage cash flow and scale up their business.
As part of its commitment. Payo only charges when the delivery is successful, assuring the merchants of good service. The transaction fee is 3% of the gross sale, according to Kadosh. Merchants will be able to collect the money from COD transactions within seven days.
Aside from the launch of the new platform, Payo is set to release a mobile application later this year to make it easier for consumers to track their orders. With this app, the consumer will be updated on the whereabouts of their orders allowing them to manage their orders.
Payo recently partnered with Paynamics and Ipay88, two of some of the biggest gateways in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. These will be fully integrated to Payo’s platform during the first quarter of 2018.
The company also recently concluded a business model and contract with TackThis!, an effective e-retail solution with social commerce capabilities that empowers individuals and businesses to sell access the web, social media, and through mobile.
First launched in December 2016, Payo was developed for HLM, an e-commerce platform and a call center business founded by Kadosh and his business partner, Liron Gross, co-founder and COO, to scale up their sales and reduce cancellations.
The Philippines was the first country Payo launched in given the growth potential of the e-commerce industry. Today, Payo handles the COD transactions of big brands such as National Bookstore, Sunnies Specs, and Sole Academy, among others.
