As South African consumers’ appetite for a cashless society steadily grows, Virgin Money; reports that its bank-agnostic, peer-to-peer payment platform, Spot, is experiencing growth.
The rising cost of cash withdrawals, an increasing requirement for safety and security and a growing need to have more control over spend in a turbulent economy are said to be driving the adoption of cashless payments.
Banks are integrating scanning mobile payments into applications and Quick Response Code (QR) scanning mechanisms, such as Zapper and Snapscan, which are gaining popularity across the country.
There is an ever-increasing response to digital banking and the day-to-day payment and transactional needs of the South African consumer demanding a customercentric approach, one that Virgin Money South Africa hopes to meet with its own innovative application, Spot, says CEO Andre Hugo.
Spot was introduced onto the South African market in February last year, rapidly taking off, with over 400 000 South Africans subscribers now on the platform.
The mobile banking platform at one point experienced a surge from 15 000 users to over 300 000 in six days, after Virgin transitioned onto a blockchain-based platform in October.
This is the market in which it took three years for one-million customers to jump on board applications such as Zapper or Snapscan.
“It took us nine months to reach 40% of that,” Hugo says.
Spot enables consumers to send or receive money, instantly, from their peers or family using just a mobile number – without the need for parties to share their banking details with each other.
The consumer requires a valid South African cellphone number, an active South African bank account, or an Internet banking-capable debit, cheque or credit card to use Virgin Money Spot, with topping up the wallet enabled through an online-enabled card or a bank transfer.
The application also boasts group pay – a feature that lets you add up to 30 people onto a payment request.
“Through Spot’s group pay feature, we are starting to see the emergence of small cashless communities, like sports teams, book clubs, or any group that regularly collects payments from its members,” Hugo tells Engineering News.
“There is more to the future of financial services than making current products and services more digital,” he says.
Further value-added services, similar to that of London-based digital banking platform Revolut, have been developed, including the ability to buy airtime and data “far quicker” than with the banking applications.
Users can also use Spot to pay for goods and services at several national merchants, leveraging QR code scanning wherever there is a “Pay with Spot’ sign.
Merchant payments were added in late 2018, with agreements signed with retailers including Burger King and Sportsmans Warehouse, as well as Total, Engen, HiFi Corp, Incredible Connection and Outdoor Warehouse.
Now Virgin is looking at adding smaller business outlets, midrange merchants and flea market owners and operator, for instance, to the Spot platform.