Coffee and convenience are a match made in heaven. That’s exactly what COFE App offers, a MENA-based online marketplace focused entirely on coffee. The caffeine-fueled app is making the freshly brewed coffee experience faster and more efficient for people in Kuwait, KSA, UAE and Egypt.
COFE App partnered with Checkout.com in a bid to work with partners who could understand their business needs, the poor support and frequent tech issues associated with their incumbent Payment Service Provider (PSP) were yet another reason to move on. “Straight away, the Checkout.com team was more about finding the best solution for us, not just selling a service. We were really impressed by this,” explains Ali Al Ebrahim, Founder & CEO. Furthermore, Shahood Siddiqui, Chief Technology Officer at COFE App added, “What impressed us most, though, was the 94-95% acceptance rate that we have been able to achieve—this has allowed us to offer a reliable and seamless service to our customers.”
Initially launching in Kuwait, COFE App needed a reliable payments partner to expand into the MENA region and beyond. Any partner that they chose had to understand the region and the preferences of each market as the business kept expanding.
From the outset, Checkout.com stood out to the COFE App team: “The global coverage that Checkout.com is able to offer is a huge plus for us since we serve customers all around the world. It is important to us that we know we have a partner that will be able to support us as we continue to expand.”
Checkout.com was able to offer a diverse range of payment methods such as MADA, STC Pay, and Apple Pay—all popular payment methods in COFE App’s major market, KSA. Additionally, Checkout.com has teams on the ground that can offer insights into the preferences of other countries both in the region and beyond so that COFE App can be confident that they are offering their customers their preferred payment method.
This enables COFE App to cater to the preferences of their customers, providing a seamless and convenient payment experience.
As Shahood explains, “We have found Checkout.com to be a very reliable partner who understands our growth trajectory and associated business needs. Their merchant support is unmatched, while their focus on constant improvement and innovation fits in very well with our own ethos of doing business. Successful partnerships like these help us seize opportunities in the growing digital economy here in MENA.”
COFE App’s key differentiator is its ability to provide the best user experience—an important feature in a fast-moving digital economy. The payments partner that COFE App chose needed to support this mission by giving them a better understanding of the customer journey so they could see where they needed to optimize the experience.
To do this, the team first needed access to data. Checkout.com’s advanced dashboard and reporting tools gave them just that. Using the data and insights provided by Checkout.com allows COFE App to track and analyze customer behavior when a payment is being made. By analyzing the data, COFE App found specific points where customers tended to abandon their transactions. Using these insights, potential friction points could be identified and corrected, therefore, optimizing the user experience and increasing conversion rates. Further, COFE App was able to identify areas of improvement as customers move through the conversion funnel such as simplifying payment processes, optimizing checkout pages or offering personal incentives.
Through the use of sophisticated alerts, COFE App is able to quickly address incidents with third-party processors and ensure uninterrupted service—Checkout.com is the only PSP that was able to provide this valuable information. Errors, downtime, security concerns and declined payments during the checkout stage negatively impacts conversion rates, consumer trust and loyalty. So, addressing these has improved the service that they are able to offer to their customers.
The reporting that COFE App receives from Checkout.com offers value beyond this too. The team is able to understand consumer behaviors as it pertains to marketing campaigns. By analyzing customer behavior during payment, they can assess the impact of different marketing initiatives on conversion rates and customer engagement. These insights allow them to refine their marketing strategies, target specific customer segments more effectively, and allocate resources to the most successful campaigns.
“The ongoing reporting and data we get from Checkout.com allows us to better target our marketing efforts and actively combat consumer dropoff,” explains Shahood. “Leveraging data in this way creates meaningful insights that have driven dramatic improvements in the customer experience, we were able to decrease drop-offs with up to 5%. This has unlocked additional revenue for us at a pivotal time in our growth journey.”
COFE App was up and running with Checkout.com in about three weeks, thanks to the streamlined and straight-forward onboarding process. “The integration process with Checkout.com was smooth for our team,” says Shahood. “We were given plenty of resources and the support team was quick to respond when we had questions or needed a bit of extra help. It was clear that they cared about making things easy for us.”
Integrating Checkout.com’s robust infrastructure and advanced payment technology into the app has had a powerful impact on the COFE App platform, says Shahood: “Checkout.com’s continuous support and regular technology updates have made a big difference for us. We've noticed our system runs smoother and we've had fewer tech issues.”
Shahood adds that Checkout.com’s dedicated support has led to improvements in other aspects of their business, including reduced exposure to risk: “The Checkout.com team has been a great help in dealing with fraud attacks. Their Fraud Detection Pro tool and advice have helped us better protect our business, and decrease fraud rates with 3%. This tool has allowed us to find the right balance between lowering fraud and maximizing acceptance rates. It is extremely easy to use.”
The team of experts at Checkout.com continuously monitor and check for suspicious patterns and alert COFE App of any activity that is fraud related. This allows them to take a proactive approach so they can block fraudsters without blocking legitimate customers.
The strategic partnership between COFE App and Checkout.com is allowing the online coffee marketplace platform to seamlessly unlock new markets across MENA and beyond. At the same time, they’re able to add new payment methods, which is crucial for optimizing revenue.
Checkout.com’s bespoke approach to meeting the unique needs of innovative businesses has empowered COFE App to expand their services and deliver meaningful improvements to the customer experience.
COFE App has an exciting future ahead as it executes its plans to scale globally. As Ali Al Ebrahim explains: “This is where Checkout.com comes in. Their advanced payment technology and dedicated support will be key in helping us serve our customers better as we grow. This makes us confident that as our business evolves, Checkout.com will be right there with us, supporting our mission every step of the way.”
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