A momentous event occured in South African e-commerce when First National Bank (FNB) made an announcement that it was now possible for FNB account holders to receive payments from people using Paypal. Why is this a big deal for the cost conscious business or budding entrepreneur:

• One of the biggest costs to getting started with an online business was the amount of banking costs one had to incur in SA. Using the big four banks you needed to open a merchant account. As we all know banking fees are not cheap in SA, what more a specialised account.
• The other alternative was to use a third party payment gateway. The SA based gateways on the main have a monthly fee which is a big deal if you are not making money from your web site
• Paypal is a division of eBay and has over 200 million users. That means you have over 200 million clients who will find it pretty easy to purchase from your site.
• Paypal charges a commission for actual sales you make. From the FNB web site this is 1.5%. When you are not making any sales you do not pay anything. This is perfect for the small player as it reduces the start up costs.

For more information visit the FNB web site: https://www.fnb.co.za/online-banking/pay-pal.html