Local e-commerce payment platform PayGate aims to boost e-commerce in the South African market with the unveiling of PayPartner, a support and rewards programme for the community of Web developers using its services.
Brendon Williamson, general manager of business development at PayGate, says the company has over 2 000 developers registered on its site.
Under the programme, the developers do not pay a fee, but PayGate recognises them for their contribution and rewards them with referrals to the merchants who need their services, he explains.
The developers get commission as a reward for every new merchant they link to their PayPartner profile, says PayGate.
"Developers will earn a monthly commission dependent on their merchants' spend," says Williamson. "The developers also have the ability to try all PayGate's innovative products first hand and offer them to their merchants before anyone else does."
The rewards programme will run in addition to the free shopping cart plugins PayGate already offers, including WooCommerce and Shopify.
"We have a completely independent developer portal tailored for developers, as well as a dedicated support team technically skilled to assist developers. We also have systems and applications tailored specifically for our developers."
With PayPartner, the e-commerce payment platform says it aims to support the professionalisation of the development community, which in turn will yield better service to online merchants and better uptake of e-commerce services.
"Developing successful e-commerce sites takes specialist skills," adds Williamson. "Those who sign up for our approved developer programme will get access to free technical support as well as our comprehensive documentation library.
"The developers' clients turn to them for advice on how to implement e-commerce and what payment services provider to choose. PayPartner is our way of investing in developers to empower them to give the best advice to their clients."
"Developers will get their own back-office area where they can track the performance of each client and get all the information they need to manage them effectively."
Describing the challenges faced by local developers, Williamson says connecting merchants so they can accept online payments is one of the biggest.
However, he says SA is at the forefront of Web development. "Many local developers contract to international companies as a result of their expertise and use of world-leading tools and concepts.
"As an emerging e-commerce market, we are developing new and sophisticated platforms that are very much leading-edge when compared to the rest of the world, he says.
Regarding the latest trends in Web development, Williamson believes mobile is playing a big part in e-commerce movements. "Social media platforms have also caught on and we are seeing a big push towards these platforms facilitating online payments."
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