Highlighting the benefits of EasyMerchant, the CEO of PayU, Mark Chirnside, said: "Start-ups and SMEs need a quick-and-simple way to take their businesses online. PayU's EasyMerchant enables an online business to get up and running, quickly. With an EasyMerchant Account we make e-business simpler, increase sales, cut paperwork and reduce the risk - we authorise credit card purchases, process them and deposit the proceeds into your account. It's simple."
This move enables SMEs to engage with an important and very big sector of the market. According to the SME Survey 2012, which is the original representative survey of SMEs in South Africa, conducted by World Wide Worx, 410 000 SMEs in South Africa have a website, representing 63 percent of active, formal SMEs. The research further shows that SMEs with a website are far more likely to turn a high profit than those without. EasyMerchant will, therefore, assist SMEs to leverage their websites from marketing tools into active, high-profit retail sites.
As noted in various reports, a significant number of consumers are already online with a steady growth in users. This has a ripple effect as it inevitably translates into more people going online to find services, creating an ever-increasing market for online merchants.
"As reported in the Internet Matters report earlier this year, approximately 150 000 SMEs in South Africa would not be able to survive without their web presence. With the internet becoming the single most important means of searching for a service provider, SMEs without an online presence will find themselves at an ever-increasing disadvantage, which is why our goal is to make it as easy as possible for businesses to sell their goods and services online," added Chirnside.
