Smart introduces mobile, online payment for SMEs

MANILA, Philippines - Smart Communications Inc., through its subsidiaries Smart e-Money Inc. (SMI) and Voyager Innovations (Voyager), has teamed up with entrepreneurship advocacy group GoNegosyo to deliver innovative mobile and online payment solutions to thousands of businesses around the Philippines.

Through SMI’s payment gateway solution dubbed Smart Pay, more than 60,000 GoNegosyo stakeholders nationwide will be able to accept and process payments from customers in person and online.

Smart co-founder and chief wireless advisor and Voyager chief executive officer Orlando B. Vea said there are two options. 

First, through a mobile point-of-sale (POS) device that involves the use of a card reader attached to a smartphone for secure mobile credit card transactions; and through Tackthis, an innovative e-Commerce storefront solution which will allow online merchants to receive and process payments over the Web.

Voyager serves a critical technology role in these solutions and is also the Philippine partner of Tackthis, a Singapore-based social commerce startup.  

“SMEs are the lifeblood of the economy,” Vea said.

GoNegosyo brings a wealth of business resources to Filipinos nationwide with an aim of cultivating a spirit of entrepreneurship that could help propel the country to further economic growth.

GoNegosyo founder Joey Concepcion said SMEs are often faced with the challenge of limited resources. But technology can simplify processes, especially payments, and enable them to grow and expand at an exponential rate.

“Smart Pay’s mobile POS and Tackthis solutions will definitely become competitive advantages to many businesses nationwide as they harness the power of mobility and the Internet to push their business ventures to new heights,” Concepcion added.

Through Smart Pay’s payment gateways, GoNegosyo’s partner businesses can quickly and securely process transactions from customers whether they are in physical stores or in online shops.

Through Smart Pay’s unique mobile POS solution, individuals and businesses of all forms and sizes will be able to accept credit card payments using only their smartphones.

With a card reader attached to a mobile device, merchants can simply swipe customers’ credit cards and have all completed transactions recorded on their phones.

The service has been piloted earlier in a few of Smart’s trade activities in Manila and Cebu, enabling Smart Store employees to take credit card transactions from paying customers.

It is an offshoot of SEMI’s acquisition of a MasterCard license in 2012, which allows it to accept and process MasterCard transactions. SMI is the first non-bank institution in the country to receive such an authorization from the financial services giant.

Tackthis, meanwhile, is a social e-commerce solution that allows businesses to set up an online shop without having to tinker with the technical details of creating a website.

Businesses can also embed these online storefronts to social networking sites such as Facebook, taking them closer to their target customers wherever they are online.

Smart Pay will power the payment gateway for online storefronts created using Tackthis, making online payments secure and convenient for both merchants and buyers.