Wirecard Launches Fully Digital Payment Product in South Africa to Boost Online Sales for Merchants

ASCHHEIM, Germany and CAPE TOWN, South Africa, August 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

• SecureEFT facilitates secure online payments directly into a bank account together with real-time notifications
• EFT payment verification can increase online sales for merchants by up to 30 percent

Wirecard, the global innovation leader in digital financial technology, today announces the launch of secureEFT in South Africa. SecureEFT is an instant electronic funds transfer payment service that allows customers to make secure online payments directly into a bank account and get notified in real-time. Merchants who receive payments from consumers via Eletronic Funds Transfer (EFT), can from now on get instant notification of successful settlement, significantly speeding up transactions. The new product will enable merchants to boost their online sales by as much as 30 percent.

According to Statista, online orders in South Africa will grow strongly: Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2018-2022) of 13.2 percent, resulting in a market volume of US$5,431m in 2022. EFT payments are the second most popular online payment methods in South Africa - with this, citizens are paying their rent, fees for doctors' appointments, school fees and further daily needs.  

As many consumers in South Africa still don't use payment cards, Wirecard is now able to accelerate the completion of the purchase process when goods or services are purchased online and paid for by EFT. Merchants can now benefit from seamless integration - using Wirecard's payment page enables integration with no additional coding necessary.

"Instant notification of successful payment means goods and services can be released or delivered real-time by the merchant - they know instantly that they have been paid. As a result we have seen an up to 30 percent higher conversion rate with some merchants using our EFT solution," said Hannalie Marsh, General Manager at Wirecard South Africa. "Our product offers a simple three-step payment process, which includes faster check-out speeds - about eight seconds versus around 20 seconds previously regarded as the industry norm. Wirecard is one of the biggest players in payments in South Africa and people trust our brand. We are looking forward to further digitizing payment processes to generate more added-value for merchants and end-consumers."

About Wirecard:
Wirecard (GER: WDI) is one of the world's fastest growing digital platforms in the area of financial commerce. We provide both corporate clients and consumers with a constantly expanding ecosystem of real-time value-added services built around innovative digital payments by using an integrated B2B2C approach. This ecosystem concentrates on the areas payment and risk, retail and transaction banking, loyalty and coupon programmes in addition to data analytics and conversion rate enhancement across all sales channels (online, mobile, ePOS). Wirecard operates regulated financial institutions in several key markets, in addition to holding issuing and acquiring licenses from all major payment and card networks. Wirecard AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (TecDAX, ISIN DE0007472060). Visit us on http://www.wirecard.com, follow us on Twitter @wirecard and on Facebook @wirecardgroup.

Wirecard media contact: 
Wirecard AG
Jana Tilz
Tel.: +49(0)89-4424-1363
Email: jana.tilz@wirecard.com