New Zealand is still lagging in the online payments landscape for businesses compared to other countries.
Despite this, a new FIS report reveals that the nation's eCommerce market is set to grow 38% by 2025, with demand increasing for alternative payment methods.
With Karen Silk, Assistant Governor of the Reserve Bank, recently calling for greater innovation in digital payments, it's time for New Zealand businesses to reconsider their payment offering to customers to improve efficiencies and scale up operations.
Scaling with online payments
New Zealand is at the forefront of the transition towards more efficient digitalised payment methods. Despite this, many businesses in NZ still rely on traditional payment methods like cash or credit to take payments.
However, offering online payment options is vital for businesses that want to stay ahead of the competition in today's digital world. Choosing a reliable payment provider can make your company's transition to digital payments easier and prevent issues arising from manual cash payments.
Finding the right partner for your business will help you streamline your payments and accounting processes, increase customer satisfaction and open up growth opportunities.
Online sports management platform RevolutioniseSPORT recently expanded from Australia to New Zealand, a transition made possible due to its payments partner Pin Payments.
"There are a lot of providers out there that offer partial solutions to online payments, but fail to provide end-to-end systems. Without the full solution, it's much harder to leverage payments, especially as a SaaS provider, to be fully successful, and that's where Pin Payments were able to help," says Alex Mednis, Managing Director at RevolutionSPORT.
"Since we started offering online payments to NZ customers through Pin Payments, we've grown our market by 15%.
"For many businesses in New Zealand, just like ours, taking online payments is now critical and provides an opportunity to scale up. Cash has become an outdated and inefficient payment method, which many businesses are moving away from."
Chris Dahl, co-CEO at Pin Payments, said it is filling a gap in the market by providing an easy online account setup with the features NZ small businesses need to accept payments online.
"eCommerce is substantially growing in New Zealand, which will be especially prevalent over the holiday period. Consumers now expect to pay online and there is a growing demand for payments providers like us in the market," Dahl says.
"Banks in New Zealand can be somewhat risk-averse in granting online merchant facilities for micro and startups with little operating history. That's why it's essential for businesses to have other options as their payments providers in NZ."
"Businesses with an NZBN can now sign up from our website. Through their Pin Payment accounts, they have access to features such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, recurring payments and integration with Xero. For platform businesses, our APIs and Hosted fields solution are ideal for businesses looking to provide a seamless checkout experience without building their own payments solution," said Chris.
With the New Zealand eCommerce market set to reach $8.5 billion (USD) and grow by 8% CAGR by 2025, now is the time for businesses to implement online payments systems that improve and scale operations.
Important takeaways for business owners
The good news is, taking online payments is now easier and more accessible than it once was. Businesses should consider payment options that offer both flexible APIs and local support with the expertise to help them scale.
While businesses might be aware of payment providers, it's important to do your research regarding providers who are best suited to help your business grow and provide specific services needed for your business.