Yoco app, which provides merchants with a mobile point of sale application and card acceptance solution, enables small medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa to securely accept card payments at the store, or on the go. By Staff Writer
The Yoco solution includes the mobile app and either a Plug-in Card reader or a Wireless card reader.
The Yoco app is available for download in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. You will need an internet or 3G connection to run transactions using Yoco.
The app has been tested with 500 merchants actively transacting on the platform.
It also goes beyond payment processing in that it includes a free point-of-sale app that lets businesses record card or cash payments, track which of their items are selling and manage their staff.
It also offers access to a free business intelligence dashboard, the Yoco Business Portal, which gives merchants access
to extensive business intelligence from their transactional data, enabling business owners to monitor business performance and conduct business administration.
In South Africa, there are over 78 million bank cards in a market of 51 million people, but only 15% of merchants can actually accept cards.
Yoco solves the problem of access and provides these small businesses with a basic point-of-sale and business analytics service. A young business can easily find itself working off paper to track sales. With Yoco a business owner is able to use the real time data generated by payments to analyse key trading times, staff sales performance and other key information that they are able to use to run their business more efficiently and strategically.
Yoco was founded by Katlego Maphai, Carl Wazen, Bradley Wattrus and Lungisa Matshoba.
Yoco’s card readers are also small enough to fit in a merchant’s pocket and because it is fully mobile, will still operate during load shedding. Merchants have the option of purchasing a plug-in reader that connects to the phone or tablet’s headphone jack, for R1 299 or a wireless Bluetooth unit for R1 999.
The plug-in reader is ideal for taking payments on the go; the wireless reader works beautifully for payments on the go, or at the counter, as it includes an optional counter stand for shops and restaurants.
