Visa Expands Digital Payment Capabilities for Small Businesses
Visa has unveiled enhanced functionalities across its Visa Accept and Visa Direct platforms, aimed at revolutionizing the manner in which smartphones facilitate digital payments.
These innovations are meticulously tailored to support small businesses in emerging markets—ranging from street vendors to burgeoning online merchants—through tools they already utilize for payment management.
“Every interaction—whether a tap, scan, or swipe—is pivotal in cultivating customer loyalty; therefore, small enterprises cannot afford any disruptions in their payment processes,” remarked Shahebaz Khan, Senior Vice President and Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at Visa.
He further articulated, “We envision a future where a solitary smartphone empowers sellers to accept diverse payment methods, derive invaluable insights, and proficiently manage their operations, allowing them to focus less on friction in payments and more on enriching customer experiences.”
As commerce increasingly migrates to mobile platforms, small businesses require streamlined solutions to accept payments—whether via cards or digital wallets.
Visa is transforming the smartphone into a central hub for small and medium businesses (SMB) transactions, melding payment acceptance, disbursement, and customer engagement into one device.
The demand is evident: according to Visa’s Global SMB Macro Trends Report, 99% of surveyed SMBs employ at least one digital finance tool, with 85% affirming that at least one has positively impacted their business.
With approximately 530 million of the 1.3 billion unbanked adults globally already utilizing smartphones, the potential to broaden digital access is considerable.
Visa Accept: Transforming Smartphones into Card Terminals
Visa Accept converts a smartphone into a card terminal, enabling micro sellers to process card payments directly linked to their Visa debit or prepaid accounts, without necessitating additional hardware.
Customers can conveniently tap to pay or utilize payment links, with funds being credited to the seller’s account in near real-time*.
This service embodies the security, dependability, and dispute resolution capabilities synonymous with Visa transactions.
For SMBs grappling with stringent cash flow, speed is imperative; Visa’s Global SMB Macro Trends Report indicates that 1 in 5 surveyed vendors experience cash-flow challenges on a daily or monthly basis, with nearly 28% encountering difficulties when utilizing credit or borrowing resources in the past year.
- Sellers can process card payments using their smartphones and banking applications, benefiting from expedited fund access.
- Issuers have the opportunity to empower eligible cardholders to accept payments directly via their banking apps, fostering deeper engagement with small businesses.
- Customers receive the same reliable Visa protections, whether transacting with a street vendor or a major retailer.
Visa Accept is presently operational in over 25 countries and has partnered with banking institutions including Access Bank, OmniBSIC Bank, and Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) in Ghana, with rollout expected imminently. By 2027, Visa anticipates that Visa Accept will be accessible to millions of merchants globally.
Visa Direct: Seamless Payouts via Smartphone
In addition, Visa is harnessing the capabilities of smartphones to streamline payouts for small businesses through Visa Direct, its instantaneous money movement platform.
By integrating Visa Direct within banking, fintech, and business platforms, a small business owner can utilize their smartphone to expedite payments to staff, contractors, or drivers, as well as manage customer refunds or incentives, and facilitate cross-border fund transfers* to eligible cards, bank accounts, or digital wallets—all through the same familiar interface they rely on for receiving payments.
Visa (NYSE: V) stands as a global leader in digital payments, orchestrating transactions among consumers, sellers, financial institutions, and governmental bodies across more than 200 countries and territories.
Source link: Newsghana.com.gh.
