Online payments company PayPal has acknowledged its relationship with big four bank FNB for the growth of its business in SA.
In an e-mail interview with ITWeb, Anupam Pahuja, PayPal VP for India, South East Asia, Middle East and Africa, said the company’s partnership with FNB, established in 2010, has enabled thousands of businesses and individual customers to transact safely when buying internationally.
He said the partnership has also empowered local merchants to get paid for goods and services from around the globe, withdrawing through their FNB bank account.
“Our focus is to help small and medium businesses as well as the large community of freelancers to be able to sell goods and services globally by providing them access to our 370 million global consumers and products that can help businesses and individuals receive payments in in a seamless and safe way,” said Pahuja.
He also pointed out that PayPal has seen an increase in business during the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw more people in SA taking to online shopping.
“Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have witnessed tremendous increase in demand for our services across markets as customers made a fundamental shift to digital.”
However, he said many of PayPal’s South African merchants were negatively impacted, especially in the travel and leisure industry.
“We quickly started collaborating with our merchants and helping them by waiving refund and charge-back fees and supporting them with the refund process. We continue to partner with these merchants with the introduction of products like easy access to credit.
“Interestingly, in research we conducted at the beginning of the pandemic, we saw there was a clear increase in the volumes around purchasing nutritional supplements, arts and crafts as well as software. We attribute this to the fact that consumers had more time to focus on their health, pursue their hobbies such as arts and crafts, as well as develop themselves by learning new skills through purchased software.”
Since the onset of the pandemic, Pahuja said PayPal has seen an increase in giving through charities. “We have also pivoted our focus to non-profits and charities in South Africa and the larger African market.
“Our ‘Donate Now’ product helps non-profits to receive funds from global contributors and supporting organisations. We have been working closely with some of the leading charities in South Africa, helping them expand their reach. Our platform and its global reach helps these charities receive donations from over 200 markets.”
Pahuja added that consumers choose PayPal as a payment method when buying goods and services from international sites.
“We’ve particularly seen an increase in transactions during the lockdown in South Africa, where consumers purchased items such as digital books (e-books), music, software for self-learning, as well as arts and crafts.
“Another important audience for us are individuals such as teachers, offering services such as language classes to students abroad. PayPal is then selected as payment method, allowing them to withdraw their payments via our relationship with FNB.”