In the past few months, there has been a surge in online traffic mainly due to Covid-19. It has also forced many businesses to shift online and e-commerce based startups are also thriving. This has created a market for payment handling services that accommodate these online merchants.
Safepay provides a secure environment to receive online payments. It’s growing as a reliable platform for online payments because of its simplicity, payment success rates, and unmatched customer service. They have partnered with more than 250 organizations like All my Tech, Faisal Fabrics, and FlashSale. This is impressive for only a year-old company.
Ziyad Parkeh is the man behind Safepay. He founded the company in 2017 after working on several startups in silicon valley. While the co-founder, Raza Naqvi, studied law from London, worked a while there, and came back to the country in 2018. A year later, he joined Ziyad to focus on Safepay.
The idea was to have the same level of convenience for doing transactions in Pakistan so I developed the product and launched it. But that was pretty much it, there was no marketing or anythingZiyad told Dawn.
A Cheaper Pakistani Alternative
One good thing about Safepay is that it can receive payments from the largest banking networks like Mastercard and Visa. All Pakistani banks and e-wallets are also supported by Safepay.
This means that businesses can expand to international markets with ease. They need to team up with international services like Paypal, Stripe to grow further and facilitate their current users.
Safepay provides simplicity and security for businesses. It was built with the Pakistani audience in mind, so the whole signing up and the managing process is easy to pick up.
Safepay is an elegantly built solution that focusses on SME and startups. Therefore, they have a low transparent fee structure and many government-imposed taxes are not even implemented.
You can look for yourself how Safepay works on a site by donating (Rs 100) to Indus Hospital on their site.
How to Integrate Safepay on Your Site?
Safepay checkout is a trouble-free checkout solution which makes it easy to make payment as you want, without being redirected away to complete the transaction.
Safepay took some steps to train their audience on using their service. Since money is involved and a minor bug or setting change can have drastic effects. So its best that users get familiar with their interface.
They have two sites: a Sandbox and a Production site.
The sandbox site is a replica. You create an account there, test/learn all the features, and then move on to the production site, which is the real deal.
No transaction can be made through the sandbox account. Even if someone makes a payment. No money would leave his account.
Creating an account is the same on both sites. The following are the requirements.
- Your email addresses
- Phone number
- Your business name
- Your business website.
After a while, you’ll receive a short KYC form to fill out and wait for its verification. Make sure there are no inconsistencies in the information you provide. Your company doesn’t have to be registered to sign up but an Id card is necessary.
It can take up to 48 hours to review your application because they do a background check and also due to the surge of new applications. Until then you will set up the plugins, set other settings, and set up production API key.
The next step is to integrate the checkout button on your site. You can simply install a plugin for WordPress, OpenCart, Shopify, Woocommerce, and WHMCS.
There is also a step by step Javascript guide on their blog. This requires some knowledge of programming.
Withdrawing Money From Safepay
Withdrawing payments to your account are just as easy. You can add up to 4 bank accounts for withdrawal.
- Go to Balance>Banks. Here is the complete list of the banks connected to your account will be displayed.
- Click Transfer to Bank.
- Choose the bank account and enter the required amount.
- Click Transfer to Bank and the amount will be transferred.
Quicklink and Connect
Safepay is more than an e-commerce site checkout button rather it can be used to receive all kinds of payments even if you don’t have a site.
Quicklink and Connect are two other services offered by Safepay. Both are ideal for specific functions.
Quicklink is used for charging a customer an extra amount without having them to place an order. You get a special link that is shared with the customer. On clicking it the customer is taken to safe pay hosted page where the customer can make the requested payment through his debit or credit card
Connect is ideal for freelancers and startups who want to charge clients anywhere in the world. The procedure is the same as Quicklink but in this case, you don’t need to have a website. It works as your mobile wallet.
Fee and Additional Charges
They charge you only when you receive money. Therefore, it may look higher than other services but comparing the overall service, it is less.
- 30pkr and 3.3% of the total amount are deducted and the rest is deposited in your account.
- No monthly charges.
- No charges on withdrawing to a bank account
The fees are the same for transactions in USD after it has been converted into PKR at the mid-market exchange rate.
Conclusion
It falls short in some areas like if you have multiple sites or e-commerce stores than you’ll have to create a separate account for each one. It can become complex quickly for those users.
But if you’ve got a small business, then Safepay is a good option. You should always research your business needs and the alternatives- like Kuickpay, Easypaisa– before choosing a service.
Every business that collects money has the choice of Safepay. This includes charity, college fees, and banks, etc Safepay itself is using its service to make donations to Indus hospital.
