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What do e-commerce platforms, social commerce platforms, and checkout bots have in common? Well, you might argue that they’re all built to sell products by improving the customer’s experience (i.e. they make it easier to buy).
In fact, companies can actually increase their conversion rates by doing things like:
- Providing a number of alternate payment options (e.g. Paypal, Stripe, Google Pay, etc.)
- Eliminating re-directions during the payment process
- Enabling payments without requiring an account
- Providing secure, one-click payment options (online and offline)
The problem is that even with all the options we have available in 2020, many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) still struggle to find a single solution that meets all the above criteria. Until now.
Meet HitPay, a mobile point of sale that enables buyers to make secure, one-click purchases across a variety of channels. This includes e-commerce platforms like Shopify, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, peer-to-peer and even brick-and-mortar stores.
Ready to find out more? Let’s start from the beginning…
About Paypal and The Paypal Innovation Lab.
PayPal is an American company that enables users to send and receive secure, quick and easy payments online. It uses existing financial infrastructures like bank accounts, credit and debit cards to transfer the money in real-time.
Like many forward-thinking corporations (e.g. RBC, Lufthansa, Daimler) Paypal has its own innovation lab, with locations in San Jose, Chennai, Bangalore, and Singapore.
The Singapore chapter was launched in 2016, in collaboration with several local government agencies, industry groups, and universities. Their goal is to:
- Help Singapore turn into a fintech hub by contributing to its technological development in the areas of AI, cashless payments, and blockchain.
- Create game-changing end-to-end customer experiences (e.g. offline and online merchant outreach, customer experience, and customer service).
- Partner up with promising startups to address the challenges faced by both consumers and businesses in the region.
From a broader perspective, Paypal’s goal is to be part of the evolving ecosystem and leverage different innovations to grow and become a go-to platform for payments globally.Several exceptional startups have graduated from their incubation program, including InvoiceInterchange, Policypal, Jumper.ai, and Tenx. HitPay is just one of their many successful incubator startups.
The thinking behind Visible.
HitPay founder and CEO Aditya Haripurkar started his career in banking and then moved on to digital services and web analytics consulting. It was the combination of these experiences that led to the inspiration behind HitPay, which he started working on in early 2016. As described by the founder:
“The idea…stemmed from wanting to play a role in fast-tracking the universal adoption of mobile payments in Singapore, which I felt lagged behind in spite of having modern infrastructure.”
Since then, HitPay has developed into a one-stop omni-channel payment, inventory management and reporting platform aimed at helping D2C brands and SMEs in Singapore increase their sales and revenue.
How it works.
HitPay enables companies to collect payments in over 30 currencies from a variety of channels, including social commerce platforms, e-commerce platforms, and offline stores – all without using a physical credit card terminal.
Users can create an account by visiting the Hitpay dashboard or by downloading the app on iOS or Android. Some additional perks include:
- No maintenance or service fees
- A contract-free point of sales (POS) terminal plan
- The availability of digital receipts
- The ability to connect to HitPlay from any terminal or browser
Additionally, you can use HitPay to track your sales for inventory and accept payments from Visa, Master Card, American Express, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Apple Pay (among others).
Two Core Offerings.
According to founder Aditya Haripurkar, the platform has two core offerings:
Offering 1: Facilitating social commerce payments
People are increasingly buying and selling products through social commerce channels like Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp. According to an article by Smart Insights up to 55% of online shoppers have made a purchase through social media and the trend only increases in younger generations.
The problem is that making a purchase from social media takes several steps and re-directions (e.g. from the platform to the website to the shopping cart, etc.). HitPay uses payment links to simplify and speed up the process.
Offering 2: Facilitating online-to-offline (O2O) campaigns
Many online businesses these days are boosting their branding and reaching new clients by expanding their POS to include trade shows, festivals, pop-up stores, and even sales events that are overseas. However, having to buy a credit card terminal just to pursue these short term sales opportunities can be impractical and inconvenient.
HitPay’s mobile POS feature enables businesses to take payments (in various currencies) without the hassle of having to use a credit card terminal.
Although there is some customer crossover with companies like Square and even PayPal, according to Aditya Haripurkar, the main difference is in the target audience. HitPay is mostly geared towards SMEs with an average transaction size of about $80 to $100 per basket.
The benefits of incubation.
Every year, aspiring fintech startups with interesting MVP’s are invited to present their concepts during a “pitchfest” held by the Paypal Innovation Lab. The most promising concepts get to join their incubation program.
HitPay was part of the 2018-2019 cohort along with two other startups, Awan Tunai and Rate3. The benefits included things like:
- Coaching and mentorship from PayPal executives and external professionals.
- Learning from experts in the fintech, finance and technology industries.
- Access to talented staff from inside and outside Paypal.
- Access to funding through PayPal’s network and VC connections during and after the incubation period.
- A co-working space at the PayPal Development Center in Suntec City.
Pitch-fest winners also benefit from working in a collaborative environment where they can interact with other startups and feed off each other’s energy, creativity, and support.
What’s next?
HitPay continues to expand its capabilities in ways that help its users send and receive secure omni-channel payments.
- In August 2019, they announced that they would be accepting PayNow and DBS PayLah! on their HitPay POS app.
- In November of that same year, they released an Inventory Sync app on the Shopify App Store, to help users keep better track of their merchandise.
As for the Paypal Innovation lab, they held their latest demo day in 2019, where they showcased the progress their startups had made during the months before. According to F6S, that latest batch of startups (i.e. AwanTunai, HitPay, and Rate) managed to raise a total of $21 m in funding.
The Innovation Lab’s facility also recently added a facial recognition system to register guests in its in-house Augmented Reality-supported bar.
We’ll be sure to keep you posted on their next batch of exciting startups in future articles
Do you want to share your corporate-startup story with the community, or do you have a question about intrapreneurship? Let’s talk!
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