Doing your shopping using Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) has just become a whole lot safer. Local BNPL provider PayJustNow has rolled out a selfie verification tool on its app that will allow users to proactively verify their identity quickly and easily before making their purchases, which dramatically reduces the risk of fraudsters getting their hands on your personal information.
BNPL lets shoppers spread the cost of their purchases across three months interest and fee free, while receiving the goods immediately. This payment method is booming, with PayJustNow seeing a 260% increase in the number of transactions in the first six months of 2022 – but there’s been a corresponding spike in fraud on digital channels globally as well, says the company’s CEO, Craig Newborn.
The average transaction volume via mobile channels in South Africa has almost tripled since 2019, according to LexisNexis. At the same time, fraud costs associated with mobile channels have soared, with fraud through mobile web browsers a major problem.
TransUnion research suggests that identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world. Experts believe someone’s identity is stolen somewhere in the world every two seconds. Yet most people believe it cannot happen to them until it is too late, and their credit worthiness has been destroyed.
“Everybody knows how to take a selfie. So we thought we’d make that part of ensuring a safe and seamless shopping experience, whether online or in-store. The selfie is compared in realtime against your ID photo at Home Affairs in doing so we validate that its you transacting” said Newborn.
Newborn says BNPL has become a key driver for conversions and growth for South African merchants – but along with the opportunity, it also requires instant and accurate onboarding, a frictionless customer experience, and fraud protection.
Overall, PayJustNow’s merchants enjoyed a 22% increase in conversion rates, and a 40% higher average spend per customer, for the first six months of 2022. The company’s data shows customers are shopping twice as frequently, and now spend almost double as much as they did a year ago. The company’s 120% growth in participating merchants in the past year has included a 257% growth in in-store locations.
“BNPL is the future of smart shopping, both for consumers and retailers. As an industry, we’re constantly working proactively to find and implement effective fraud solutions that can accurately verify our customers’ identities and protect their information without making it hard for genuine customers to shop,” said Newborn.
