New MENA report from Checkout.com highlights merchant opportunities in digital transformation

In its third report, Seizing the Digital Opportunity in MENA 2023, Checkout.com highlights that merchants to improve their bottom line through digital payments. Part of its annual MENA Report series, the new report acknowledges that the region’s digital economy has moved from strength to strength in recent years but suggests that merchants’ ability to fine-tune their payment performance is a decisive factor in retaining their competitive edge.

The new report offers a guide to help merchants better capture the opportunities of digital transformation including exploring payments through AFTs, putting data at the heart of payments strategies, keeping fraud at bay, and partner models for expanding digital commerce platforms.

The rise of digital payments in the MENA region has resulted in the need for businesses to collect and analyse digital payment data. This data has the potential to drive revenue benefits for businesses, from optimizing the checkout process to evaluating internal processes and operations. Despite 49 percent of survey participants reporting access to payment data, a significant number of merchants in KSA and UAE are not able to turn it into actionable insights.

The report shows that 75 percent of merchants in the UAE and KSA measure payments optimization KPIs, including authorization rates, chargebacks, downtime, and fees, as part of their overall financial performance. By understanding their payments data, merchants can also unlock significant cost savings by identifying costs such as scheme fees, interchange, markup, or real-time FX fees.

Remo Giovanni Abbondandolo, General Manager for MENA at Checkout.com, said: “Nearly four in five consumers in MENA are already engaging in various types of fintech activities, including money transfers such a Western Union, wealth management and investments such as Sarwa, Baraka and Get Stake. In the current pace at which the digital economy is growing, optimizing payment performance is not just a necessity, but a strategic asset that can unlock new revenue streams and eliminate inefficiencies. Refinement of payment tactics and leveraging data-centric approaches can provide the much-needed edge over the competition.”

Using payment data to monitor the health of a risk strategy and identify areas of weakness is necessary for optimized execution. According to Checkout.com’s findings, 65 percent of consumers in MENA may avoid shopping online if they have safety concerns and 75 percent of them will not reattempt to purchase an item from the same website, or at all, if their payment is falsely declined. Moreover, a quarter of consumers in MENA have had a payment declined online in the past year despite having enough funds in their accounts.

The payments industry is an essential part of the rapidly growing digital economy in the MENA region, with many businesses now offering embedded finance. Accordingly, merchants in the region should partner with an expert payments optimization company to fast-track their path to success. Data from Checkout.com’s report shows that 41 percent of merchants in UAE and KSA look for a payment provider with the most modern technology and expertise to support the most advanced payments setups.

Abbondandolo pointed out that following the granting of its direct acquiring license in the UAE from the Central Bank, the company now has more control over processing outcomes and can drive best in class payment acceptance and performance for our merchants.