For a business owner, how does using the E-commerce solution from Co-op Bank help grow a business?

The ravaging Covid-19 pandemic has dictated a rather drastic change to our livelihoods if we have to check its spread.

The business owners have had to embrace cashless means of payments, to lower their risk levels presented by use of hard cash. There’s need, therefore, for a reliable E-commerce platform.

To address that concern, The Co-operative Bank has heavily invested in E-commerce to guarantee safety and quick flow of payments to their clients – Merchants and their customers.

Here’s a preview of various advantages a merchant enjoys:

1. Convenience to their customers consequently an increase in sales: Customers do not need to be physically present. Payments can be transacted at any time from any location in the world and delivery is done.
2. Outstanding real-time processing speed with average authorisation response times typically below 2 seconds: quicker service delivery as payments reflect instantly.
3. A customer enjoys a variety of card: International VISA credit and debit cards, pre-paid cards – which doubles safety and convenience on both ends.
4. There’s more sales, as E-commerce allows flexibility for multiple currencies – Kes, USD, GBP and Euro
5. The E-commerce solution gives unparalleled processing scalability and security – as it’s instant, and avoids the risks fraught with using hard cash.
6. The merchants and their customers enjoy exceptional service reliability that’s backed by 24/07 operations support. In case of any hitch, there’s real-time assistance.
7. E-commerce allows advanced fraud prevention solutions, on both the merchants’ and customers’ end.
8. The ease of integration. A merchant using the E-commerce has accounting and book balancing cut out, as opposed to tedious paperwork occasioned by hard cash sales.
9. Real-time reporting on payments and account statuses for trading partners.

Most importantly, with the E-commerce solution, merchants are now be able to receive payments not only from Co-op Bank card holders but also card holders from other banks.

Co-op Bank also offers other Cashless solutions to merchants. For instance:

1. Lipa Na M-Pesa: The bank assists you get a till number so payments can be directly deposited into your Co-op bank account.
2. POS/PDQ terminals: Customers do not need to handle hard cash. They can use their cards to make payments, and money is deposited directly into the merchant’s account.
3. MCo-op Cash: Co-op bank customers with the mobile banking solution can conveniently transfer money directly from their Co-op account into the merchant’s Co-op account using the USSD number *667# or via the MCo-op Cash app.
4. Lipa Na M-Pesa Paybill number 400200: Customers can use their phones to send money directly into the merchant’s Co-op bank account using the M-Pesa Paybill number 400200.

Merchants are encouraged to contact Co-op Bank for details and assistance.