Stitch, a payments infrastructure firm based in South Africa has announced the launch of WigWag to enable SMEs to accept payments in minutes.
A unique link given through email or SMS will let South African businesses accept payments from domestic and foreign credit cards. WigWag will be more of an emphasis on small enterprises whereas Stitch will cater to major corporations by providing scalable custom payment solutions.
A link with the required payment amount and the link’s expiration date will be generated for the consumer by the merchant after registration for the services. The customer will then click the link to pay by sending it to them over social media chat, WhatsApp, email, or SMS.
Danielle Laity, WigWag product manager at Stitch, spoke on the importance of WigWag to small businesses. According to the manager, anyone can now provide their consumers with a genuinely seamless experience and have access to dependable payments through the API.
The launch of WigWag by Stitch elaborates on the growing trend of social commerce. The deluge of likes, retweets, and online reviews gives consumers greater assurance of a product’s quality.
Social commerce has another canny tool in its arsenal. ‘Frictionless’ payment options such as one-click, guest checkout, saved shopping carts, and auto-filled card details allow us to buy products within seconds. Fintech firms like Stitch are now making this possible.
In a statement, the startup said: “SMEs and informal sellers constitute 28.8% of South African businesses today. Many of these businesses market and sell their solutions via social media. The social commerce industry in South Africa is expected to grow by 63.7% on an annual basis to US $1,36 billion in 2023 – and is further expected to record a CAGR of 38.4% during 2022-2028.”
Stitch sees WigWag as an opportunity to serve small businesses with a simple solution that runs on top of the Stitch API, making it easier than ever for them to get paid online.
