Online Payment Systems – Ozow, PayFast, PayGate, Peach Payments

Get your share of the growing online retail spend. Find out which is the best online payment system for your business in this short guide.

Receiving payments is one of the most important aspects of running a retail business. With the onward march of digital payments, more and more shoppers are going online every year, so it’s crucial to offer a secure and reliable online payment system to your customers. There are several options on the market, and these are some of the best online payment systems available.

Also Read: Try QuickBooks Online Accounting Software

PayPal

Pros: Worldwide availability, secure, merchant discounts.

The convenience of PayPal is that it is a worldwide mobile payment service, so it doesn’t confine your business by location and it’s easy to integrate into your existing website platform. And, best of all, customers don’t need a PayPal account to use it.

However, PayPal can be comparatively expensive for light or seasonal users. Fees start from 3.4% $0.30 (roughly R4.46).

Add that to the FNB charge of 1.5%, and you will have paid about 4.9% in fees on any money you receive from abroad.

FNB is the official bank in South Africa to transact with PayPal and has opened up access to the PayPal service so that people with accounts at any of the South African banks can link their bank accounts to their PayPal account and send or receive money.

Shopify

Pros: Easy to use, full e-commerce solution

Hugely popular e-commerce platform because of its ease of use. Unlike PayPal, Shopify offers absolutely everything you need to get started running an online business, from web hosting to payment processing to integration with other sales channels.

Transaction fees range from 2% for a basic service to 0.5% for an advanced service, but there are monthly fees on top, so it’s not one of the cheaper options.

Ozow Vs Payfast

Payfast

Pros: No merchant account required, immediately start accepting bank transfers

Payfast services include recurring billing, credit & cheque cards, Instant EFT, Bitcoin, mobicred, ATM debit cards and Masterpass. The process for accepting credit cards and other forms of payment is also quite simple. There is just a short business verification and then you are all set.

Payfast Fees

Payfast pricing is per transaction with no setup or monthly fees. An instant EFT costs 2.0% (minimum R2.00) and credit & cheque cards payment cost 3.5% plus R2.00 per transaction.

Ozow

Pros: low transaction fees, very fast

Ozow is a relatively new online payment solution for small businesses but it has payment processes that speed up transactions via easy mobile integrated payment verification methods. It works with most major eCommerce platforms including, woocommerce, Shopify, Magento, Prestashop, BigCommerce and Virtuemart.

Their transaction fees are 2.5% going down to 1.5% depending on volume.

PayGate Vs PayU

PayGate

Pros: easy integration, API very easy to implement

PayGate is one of South Africa’s first payment gateways. Originally their services were more focused on larger eCommerce vendors but they introduced PAYCOLLECT, which does not require a bank internet merchant account.

Their payment services include Credit and debit card payments, including, American Express, Diners Club, Mastercard, and Visa. In addition, PayGate also offers Zapper Scan to Pay, PayPal integration, MasterPass, SiD Instant EFT, PaySum1 (for international payments), SCode, and Visa Checkout.

PAYCOLLECT has a 0% transaction fee, this however excludes the bank merchant acquiring fees, charged separately by the bank to the merchant.

PayU

Pros: centralized integration, different payment strategies, and security

PayU services 1500+ eCommerce websites in South Africa and offer more than 25 different payment methods. With more than R9 billion rands worth of transactions processed each year, the company is the largest payment gateway in South Africa.

Their payment services include Instant EFT, cheque card, and credit cards amongst others.

PayU fees are not openly available and you will need to find out from them directly.

Peach Payments

Pros: easy to use, good user support

The main advantage of Peach Payments is that they have a very easy to use platform that is easy to integrate, however they do require an internet merchant accounts for any business who wants to use their service.

Their payment services include SID instant EFT, cheque cards, credit cards, one-click subscription, invoice collection, and more.

Their transaction fees are R1.50 for less than 3000 transactions, R1.25 for between 3000 and 7999 transactions, and R1.10 per transaction for 8000 and above. There is also a setup fee of R250 and a monthly fee of R300

Find out more

Whatever your business type and size, there is an online payment system to suit your needs. You just need to do your research to figure out the best option for your business.

Discover more free Small Business Resources at the Intuit QuickBooks Resource Centre to help grow your business in South Africa today.