Zapper partners with Stitch to offer fast, secure one-click payments

Problem: Payments and rewards platform Zapper sought to provide increased choice and optionality for their merchants and consumers when it comes to the way they’re able to accept payments and initiate transactions.

Stitch solution: Zapper integrated Stitch, enabling customers to link their bank accounts with Zapper to make one-click, secure instant EFT payments.

Result: Zapper’s merchants are able to offer the most popular and cost-effective payment method in South Africa without having to manage another payment integration themselves. Consumers can take advantage of the most innovative payments solution to make one-click payments directly from their bank accounts and get on their way faster. No need for a bank card anymore, only a bank account.

Zapper’s journey in the South African payments space

Mobile payments and rewards platform Zapper is on a mission to empower customers with the most convenient and efficient ways to pay, as well as enabling merchants to grow their businesses and improve conversions. Since launching in 2014, Zapper has become an establishment in the South African payments space, trusted by more than 1 million customers.

Zapper has partnered with Stitch to offer consumers the ability to make one-click payments via Instant EFT, by linking their bank accounts to the Zapper app.

Whether you’re buying a coffee at a café, paying the bill at a restaurant or paying your parking ticket at the mall, Zapper’s solutions all work towards removing the friction typically associated with payments, making it as convenient as possible for consumers and merchants alike.

Meeting consumer demand and the future of digital payments

Zapper CEO Brett White understands that South African consumers value convenience. On driving consumer adoption, White told us:

“Consumers will utilise a payment option if it’s easy for them. If there’s availability to use the tender type they enjoy paying with, and there’s utility, benefit and ease behind it, that drives consumer adoption.”

Looking to the future, White believes more improvements in choice and optionality are on the horizon for South Africa’s payments space. “I foresee a shift of dominance from card rails to alternative rails [including a] global movement toward payment rails that will result in convenience to both consumers and merchants in terms of speed and security. Instant EFT is certainly one of those opportunities.”

Stitch CEO Kiaan Pillay shares these sentiments, commenting that:

“The future of digital payments in South Africa has a lot more flexibility. Users will be able to choose how to pay – whether through card, their bank or crypto. Platforms like Zapper enable choice for users and ultimately abstract a lot of the complexity behind it.”

Globally, there are a variety of key drivers pushing cashless, digital payments to the forefront, and South Africa is no exception. Aside from the pandemic, a growing millennial and Gen Z consumer base, comfortable with making digital payments, and driven by rewards and incentives provide ample opportunity for fintechs in the country to expand their services and keep customer satisfaction at the forefront.

By partnering with Stitch, Zapper is able to capitalise on these opportunities by continuing to remove friction from the payments journey and giving consumers the power of choice. “Part of taking friction out of the payment journey for consumers involves providing them with options that suit them best. We want to give them choice and optionality to make payments that are quick and convenient.”

Implementing the most frictionless payments experience

With Stitch, Zapper users can link their bank accounts with Zapper to make instant, secure, one-click payments at any Zapper merchant. White told us, “The ability to link an account was enticing to us, and we were very excited about providing an even more frictionless way for consumers to make a payment directly from their account.”

White believes this partnership can both drive consumer adoption with low-cost transactions, as well as give merchants a chance to develop strong relationships with their customers in the form of rewards thanks to the cost-saving properties of Instant EFTs vs card rails. White told us:

“Lowering the cost of a transaction increases margins, providing the opportunity for incentives back to the customer. We’re giving them a convenient, secure way to pay, and we’re providing merchants benefits through that cost reduction to drive this as another form of tender, which in the retail sector, is something I think they desperately want.”

Pillay explains the benefits of account linking for Zapper users: “Historically in the bank-to-bank payments space, it’s always been a once-off experience. You had to log in from scratch again every time you wanted to pay. Incumbent methods like card actually had a better experience. With LinkPay, we’re able to fully match that experience; it’s a seamless, one-click process and you’ll never have to do it again. Now we’re able to offer the same experience as card, with all of the benefits of paying directly from a bank account.”

On the value this adds to the South African market, he notes, “the impact this will have is huge. With a highly banked population and low card penetration, this gives access to even more consumers.”

Inside our collaborative partnership approach

When it comes to the way both teams have approached the partnership, Pillay commented that “both teams have been very open-minded. We had an objective at the start, and both teams were very flexible in terms of how we came together. We’ve had feedback on their product, and they had feedback on ours. Together we came up with a really cool solution.”

Stitch Head of Customer Success Dewald Muller remains laser-focused on helping Zapper and all of our clients achieve their payments and broader business goals. He explains, “Operationally, customer success entails facilitating the whole journey once a client has signed with Stitch. That means taking them live and managing the journey after that.”

Our approach involves true collaboration to ensure both parties – our clients and Stitch – see real value from the partnership. Muller comments:

“Once a client has signed, we really want them to see value from Stitch as fast as possible. Our technical solutions team works closely with their counterparts – product managers, development managers and QA team members – to firstly understand how to map out the integration and then rally the team members together to get them live as soon as possible, achieving specific onboarding and integration milestones. Then we look toward enabling rapid adoption of the Stitch method.”

Product Manager, Ashlea du Plessis told us that the integration has been a truly collaborative process, “from scoping sessions to design input from the Stitch team, all the way to implementation and testing.” She adds, “Stitch was eager to help us test the beta solution. The level of professionalism and open communication from both sides has been vital to the success of this project.”

Learn more about how Zapper and Stitch work together to bring one-click payments to over 1 million South Africans.

To learn more about how your business can leverage the convenience of Stitch LinkPay to enable secure, one-click payments, get in touch at sales@stitch.money.