Dubai - MENA Herald: Network International, the leading payment solutions provider in the Middle East, today announced the launch of Network Online (NeO), a sophisticated online payment gateway, which is expected to give a substantial boost to e-commerce in the UAE. NeO is the first smart payment gateway to be created in the UAE, customised to match the needs of merchants in the Middle East.
NeO allows merchants to accept Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Diners, Discover and Mercury payments for goods and services online and via mobile devices. NeO provides merchants with the ability to prevent online fraud losses and removes friction from the buying process by offering one-click checkout to maximise online sales. Currently live with over 100 merchants, Network International is now able to offer its world-class payments platform and associated benefits to other online businesses across the UAE.
“Network International’s highly efficient e-commerce services have become an important catalyst in the field of online payment services in the UAE, and NeO is expected to be the region’s most sophisticated gateway/merchant account solution, with the capability to deliver key benefits to the region’s e-commerce merchants,” said Bhairav Trivedi, Chief Executive Officer, Network International.
Network International is the largest e-commerce payments provider in the UAE and has processed over AED 20 billion in online value in 2014. The company developed NeO to meet the specific needs of merchants in the Middle East. Network’s GCC Payments Innovation Survey last year identified several key drivers for e-commerce growth in the region including greater security and ease of checkout.
“Given the high internet penetration, a population that is continuously connected through a variety of devices, and a largely consumer-driven economy, we expect e-commerce transactions in the UAE to touch US $10 billion by 2018,” added Trivedi.
The payments study revealed that security is the number one concern for consumers in the Middle East. Merchants that accept payments via NeO utilise industry leading security protocols and fraud monitoring capabilities. The platform also provides the added security layer of tokenisation - the replacement of sensitive data with a unique identifier that cannot be mathematically reversed - to render payment card data meaningless to hackers.
“While 34 per cent of the UAE’s 8.4 million population are e-shoppers, e-commerce is only about 2.5 per cent of total retail spend,” said David Mountain, Chief Commercial Officer, Network International. “Our predictive fraud algorithms, encryption and authentication give merchants and customers peace of mind, and our ‘one click buying’ ensures the experience is easy and quick.”
