Naivas Supermarket Unveils Naivas Pay
Naivas has on the 3rd of October launched Naivas Pay, a digital payment system set to be used in all Naivas retail stores.
Currently, there is increased demand for safer, convenient, and faster payment method in Kenya. This has been, in part, encouraged by the notable growth of the retail market. Naivas Pay is, therefore, an apt response to the growing demand for a better payment solution.
Naivas Pay is supported by a PDQ point of sale machine and the Naivas internal retail software. The new payment system will accept cash, debit and credit cards. Mobile money, including M-Pesa and Equity’s Eazzypay, will also be accepted.
The launch may spell doom for other payment solutions such as Lipa na M-Pesa, the recently launched M-Pesa 1Tap, and MasterCard.
Advantages of Naivas Pay
Technology has changed how we make and receive payments. One of the advantages of this is the emergence of a cashless economy which translates to convenience and ease in tracking spends. On the other hand, digital money platforms have given rise to fraud. This has forced key players to come up with ways to combat fraud and Safaricom is leading the pack with the photo identification strategy dubbed ‘Know Your Customer’.
The Naivas Pay payment method benefits both the customer and the supermarket chain. One of the advantages of the Naivas Pay payment system is that the supermarket chain will reduce the cost of processing payments with Interswitch as the system’s integrator.
Secondly, Naivas Pay will allow customers to make direct payments from their bank accounts using their devices, cards, and tags thus eliminating processing costs. In addition, Naivas Pay gives the merchant more control over how payments are made and processed.
The next advantage is that with a single payment processing system, it will be easy to reconcile data unlike when they worked with several processors.
Finally, Naivas will be able to collect customer data which will help the supermarket chain understand customer behavior. This data may include shopping frequency, locations, and payment methods. The data collected can be used to make adjustments in order to offer better services.
Entry into e-commerce space
Naivas has expressed interest in the e-commerce space and is set to launch operations by the end of the year.
Over the past few years, supermarket chains have been feeling the heat from growing e-commerce sector and this may have pushed Naivas to consider entry into this space.
The supermarket chain says that their e-commerce store will come with a full product range as their physical stores. Over 10kproducts will be available for home delivery.
One of the challenges facing the e-commerce sector in Kenya is timely delivery. Most e-commerce companies in Kenya are yet to ensure that customers receive their orders in the nearest time possible. However, there seems to be some progress in this area since Kilimall’s partnership with Aramex suggests that these companies are putting in place measures to solve this problem. Naivas is alleged to be in talks with a delivery partner that will do all customer deliveries.
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