The Leading Digital Marketing, Lifestyle, and Mobile Payment Platform: Zapper

“Our vision is to provide a simple and secure user experience that is convenient and valuable for both businesses and their customers.”

Mobile payments have become the new standard. Founded in 2013, Zapper has grown to be one of the largest and most successful global mobile payment and digital marketing platforms with over 25,000 merchants utilizing Zapper globally and over 6 million transactions on the app.

Zapper has its primary development center in Cape Town, South Africa and operates within the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and South Africa.

Effortless mCommerce with Zapper

More than simply a mobile payment platform, Zapper satisfies users on both sides of the payment. The ability to offer definitively measurable marketing and redemption opportunities within a closed loop environment is an industry-leading feature of Zapper.

Zapper’s founders are experts in converting manual functions into intuitive digital experiences. This allowed them to transform the ability to pay into more than just another electronic function, but one vested in the ubiquitous mobile smartphone. In addition to allowing convenient and secure payments, other value-added functions – such as in-app loyalty, marketing, and customer rewards vouchers – have made transactional data insightful and conveniently actionable for merchants to engage their customers. Zapper’s customizable CRM dashboard opens a previously impossible avenue for merchants, particularly in the restaurant and retail verticals, to recognize not only who their customers are, but also what they are buying.

Initial Project and Accomplishment

The first Zapper product launched is a QR Code based pay-at-table experience for restaurants. Zapper integrated into the restaurant point-of-sale systems by intercepting the printer data to analyze and inject a transaction specific QR Code that includes payment details. Once the bill is printed and presented to the table, the customer opens the Zapper application on their smartphone to scan the bill’s QR Code. The billing data is carried by the QR Code into the phone application and sent to Zapper for processing. With the payment processing completed, a confirmation is sent to both the merchant and the Zapper user. Along with a printed confirmation receipt at the point-of-sale printer, the bill is automatically tendered and closed.

With the addition of Zapper’s automatic built-in loyalty and customer reward features, the merchant and the customer both enjoy the immediate benefits of Zapper. Merchants are excited by the opportunity to market to their most loyal customers with in-app marketing; end users are engaged in a more rewarding way to pay.

Obstacles On the Stairway to Success

It is challenging to build an all-encompassing platform that processes payments securely and has valuable features for both customer and merchant while simultaneously maintaining profitability. The key is to partner with merchants in a way that allows Zapper to service the merchants proficiently within a heterogeneous integration environment. A solid marketing strategy that innovatively addresses the most impactful entry points must be formulated and executed within Zapper’s expansion capability. This takes an immense degree of tenacity from the product innovators, developers, and marketing personnel.

Distinguishing Attributes

• Strategic partners who are leaders in the point-of-sale industry with a shared vision in restaurant and retail technology.
• The ability to harness payment data to inform a more effective marketing product.
• An agile technology platform and entrepreneurial team to dynamically grow and meet market demand by accommodating the short feedback loop in a new market innovation.

Game Plan Down the Road

Zapper is excited to launch the following products in the near future: disconnected payments for airline and cruise liner transactions, mobile2mobile transactions for Zapper customers, and NFC tap-and-go payments.

The company seeks to further develop a universal standard integration with commercial platforms to elevate mobile omnipresence into a fast, secure, and convenient financial solution for customers and merchants. The payments data produced by these transactions will yield a tangible yet noninvasive advantage for both the consumer and merchant.

The Pillar of Strength

David De Villiers, Founder, and CEO: David is an innovative disruptor, devoted to developing solutions that embrace efficiency. David previously served as Head of I.T. & Strategic Projects at Investec Private Bank. David’s mainstay is to inspire global teams with optimism to focus on goal-orientated outcomes. With strong character being formed in the South African military and competitive sports playing rugby, David honed his mental and physical talents to win for his team. These skills and acumen adapted into the business world where David is a serial entrepreneur who executes strategic business plans.

“We have leveraged our roots in successful global e-commerce platforms to deliver the leading mobile payment and digital marketing platform and app in this space.”