The big innovation here is that this service will allow consumers, who have traditionally been prevented from interacting (read spending money) because they haven’t had credit cards, to spend online.
Here’s more detailed info(reproduced here from Biz-community.com because they’ve already said what I want to and I’m busy)
“The electronic voucher is sent to your specified cellphone number and that voucher number is used to shop online from retailers and service providers that accept MiMoney as payment option. Until January 2009, www.kalahari.net will be the exclusive online retail partner, after which other web- and mobile sites will be added to the list of MiMoney partners. SterKinekor will be accepting MiMoney as payment option for movie tickets from the end of December 2008.
Says Gary Hadfield, CEO of kalahari.net, “MiMoney is not exclusive to a specific bank or service provider. So no matter who you bank with or who your cellphone service provider is, you can purchase MiMoney by simply using Internet, cellphone or telephone banking or paying with cash/debit card at participating sales agents. [It] enables people without credit cards to transact online and it addresses the security concerns that many people still have about entering their credit card details online. You don’t even have to have a bank account to purchase a voucher and there are no additional charges from MiMoney’s side to purchase or use the voucher.”
Hadfield continued that the new payment option will remove a lot of barriers to online shopping and that it is sure to fuel the growth of online retail in South Africa. “In the run-up to Christmas, it is very good news for consumers that the convenience of online shopping is now accessible to everyone who has a cellphone. This initiative is part of kalahari.net’s continued commitment to help grow the e-commerce industry in South Africa and we therefore invested a lot of time in helping shape this product and are proud to be the first online retailer to offer it,” says Hadfield. He added that this development also comes at a critical point in the push for mobile commerce.
When a voucher is purchased through a self-banking channel by making a third party payment, consumers will be asked to provide their cellphone number in the beneficiary reference field. Once that transaction has been completed, the 18-digit voucher number is delivered to the specified cellphone number. When a voucher is bought from a ‘real world’ sales agent (Ster Kinekor is the first sales agent to sell vouchers from the end of December 2008), the 18-digit number has to be smsed to the number provided on the sales slip which will activate the voucher. The voucher can then be used at any online retailer/service provider that indicates acceptance of this payment method.
MiMoney vouchers are available in any denomination for amounts of up to R1000 and the monthly limit is R10 000.”
WILL IT WORK?
Yeah, it sounds good. I think it’s got a shot at opening up online transactions to the lower LSM’s. The biggest hurdle I think they can look forward to is a trust issue. The consumers that this service is exciting for are going to require a level of re-education with regards to their purchasing decisions and just learning to trust anything online when you’re new to it, is hard. They will effectively be buying vouchers to purchase online and that requires a degree of trust in the source of the vouchers, which is going to need to be established early on.
For the rest of us, the more options we have for the same service from multiple providers, the more power we as consumers have to apply pressure onto those multiple service providers to get more competition in their offerings or at the very least improve their service.
Whether MiMoney punches in that weight class however, also remains to be seen.
For more take a look at their site.
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