With the number of ‘social sellers’ – people who sell online through sites like Depop, Ebay or Gumtree – growing fast and with a booming second-hand resale market is expected to reach $51billion in the next five years, there is a growing need for a simple way to pay.
Aimed at meeting this demand, VibePay’s new app update aims to take on the established payment providers that make it expensive and lengthy to get paid by someone and make it easy to socially pay for ecommerce items.
The problem is that, some existing payment providers charge 3.4% per transaction just to make a payment, not just on the items sold but across the combined sales price and postage costs, and can hold the funds for up to 21 days.
In the VibePay app, users can now create a payment request for the amount they need to get paid – for example, £10 – and generate a unique, secure link. They can then share this link with anyone they want to request a payment from – this could be on WhatsApp, or through the platform they’re selling items on. When the recipient clicks on the links, it takes them to the VibePay app where they can complete the payment securely from their linked bank account. The link never expires so it’s easy to take the same payment amount from several people in a group or when selling items online.
Users can also use the app’s revamped activity page to keep track of who has paid them through each link, and who still owes them money.
Founder and CEO of Vibe, Luke Massie, explains: “Our community are telling us that they’re getting ripped off when they sell their goods online – not only paying extortionate fees but having to wait days, sometimes weeks to receive payment into their bank account. With our new payment offering, we’re putting an end to seller payment fees and waiting times.”
He continues: “This update is giving our users even more ways to requests payments from people using the VibePay app. Since we launched just six months ago, over £1m has already been requested through the app, a figure we expect to triple in the next few months as we help even more people to get paid.”
Massie concludes: “Open banking is allowing us to eliminate the middlemen who have dominated the payments space for years and offer consumers a fast, free way to request payments online. The VibePay app is just the start for us. Our vision is to use our unique payment platform and technology to enable any business to deliver a unique experience for consumers, wherever they shop online.”
VibePay has already partnered with the UK’s major banks including Monzo, First Direct, Revolut, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and Santander. It has also now acquired licences to enter new markets across Europe, including France, Luxembourg and Germany, which will be rolled out in the coming weeks.
In the coming weeks VibePay will also announce the next phase of the Vibe banking gateway, which the company refers to as ‘the engine’. This is an aggregated layer, which integrates into existing banking infrastructure, and with one simple API allows the consumer app to deliver a unique experience for consumers, powering social payments.
