PCM Vol.2 - Issue 10

expert interview
act locally but really only provide a credit card solution to most
of these markets. And if credit card is not the dominant choice
of payment in that particular market then those merchants and
consumers are left with a negative consumer experience. This
constitutes one more reason why PayU is focused on truly local
expertise, which is where our strength lies.
Another trend to keep an eye on is using mobile for payments
in commerce. People in emerging markets commonly use the
internet via their mobile devices for the first time. In markets,
such as Sub-Saharan Africa, mobile payment is the dominant
way to pay and to shop. For merchants that want to expand
to Africa, mobile must become the top priority. For PayU, the
number 1 priority is making sure to service our customers both
on the merchant and consumer side in the best possible way
through their mobile device. That means PayU must stay at the
forefront of technological development in order to provide an
easy to use experience.
Equally important to us is the conversion rate. One of our
recent studies showed that out of any of other payment service
provider, we have the highest conversion rate in the industry.
This is a crucial aspect for merchants as they don’t want to lose
customers in the payment process
Interestingly in Western markets you see a big conversion
difference between eCommerce and mobile commerce. So, for
people shopping on a PC, the conversion rate is 2 to 3 times
higher than people shopping on their mobile device. In the
emergent market the difference is not that significant,
which is mainly caused due to consumers using
their mobile device as their only access to the
internet. Since this trend is likely to continue,
mobile will be a big battleground in the future.
Even beyond payments, PayU’s
customers and merchants require
additional services. This
includes easy access to
consumer credit or working
capital financing, especially
for small businesses. Those
demands pose opportunities for
us, which is why we are starting
to explore expansion into these
areas where we
can provide our customers with an even richer range of services.
Why should a global company be excited about entering
markets such as Poland and Turkey?
First of all, trends show that more and more consumers are going
online to shop. These markets have vast populations – these are
big markets with a lot of people. Plus, the consumer population
tends to be in a younger bracket. For example, in Turkey 70% of
the population is below the age of 35. As all of these people going
online results in an increasing push for internet penetration
both from the governmental side as well as from the consumers
themselves. Consequently, when those potential shoppers go
online, the global merchants have a great opportunity to capture
a substantial part of their online spending. This is because many
This Month’s Expert
Mario Shiliashki
Chief Executive Officer, PayU EMEA
Mario Shiliashki was appointed CEO
of PayU EMEA in October 2015.
Before joining PayU, Mario was Senior Vice President
and Group Head of Global Emerging Payments at
MasterCard. Prior to MasterCard he was one of the first
employees of Paypal’s international team in London
helping building Paypal’s European business. In his
early career, Mario was an equity analyst at Goldman
Sachs and subsequently a strategy consultant at Bain.
He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a
Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Economics
from Bryant University.
of those global brands are well recognized. This is the market in
which consumers are looking to participate.
The growth of the market, the even faster growth of e-Commerce
and the increasing number of e-Commerce shoppers in these
markets all lead to a massive opportunity for global brands
to expand beyond single digit growth rates in their domestic
markets to potential double or sometimes triple digit growth in
areas such as Turkey, Poland, Russia, Central & Eastern Europe.
Africa alone represents a whole new world of
opportunities that is opening up
with a fast growing middle class
and internet penetration becoming
relatively high. Also governments in
that regions are becoming more open
and friendly towards import and
export business. To us, all these
trends spell a big opportunity
for global merchants.
For that reason, PayU strives to make the move for
merchants seamless and easy with our checkout mechanisms
paired with our local know-how. We can provide the data and
insights into what local consumers need, their preferred way of
paying, their preferred way of checkout, what channels they like
to shop on and so forth. we already possess this information
because we are processing a large part of the online payments
in these markets.
What do you see as the most important factors for global
merchants to be aware of when entering your markets?
First and foremost, before entering an emerging market,
merchants need to decide how to do it. Among other aspects
the right consumer base needs to be determined and the right
experience that the merchants want to offer to their consumers
must be chosen. At this exact point of entering a new market or
expanding within a new market, PayU can help with our data by
extracting required information about consumer preferences.
Therefore, PayU can advise merchants on suitable payment
016