In what may seem like a commonplace feature in many countries but represents a pioneering move in Russia, leading dating service Mamba has introduced an Amazon-like one-click payment method, making the recurring use of its service easier.
Once a user’s bank card is registered for a first-time payment, subsequent payments are pre-authorized based on information stored by Visa or Mastercard.
Mamba claims this new feature has already triggered a 10% increase of the volume of bank card transactions on their site. However, payment by bank card is only one of several available payment methods. “Months ago, we introduced the one-click payment system for payments made from mobile phone accounts as well as from Yandex.Money accounts,” said Anton Butivshchenko, the head of Mamba’s billing department.
While the first recurring payment systems appeared in Russia about one year ago, mainly in the telecom and some subscription-based services, the one-click feature is even more recent, said Chronopay’s Vice President Dmitry Shmakov in an exchange with East-West Digital News.
A major Russian online payment solution provider now operating internationally, Chronopay claims to have been the first to implement these new payment methods in Russia on a large scale. While deploying the solution on the international versions of Mamba, the will actively push it on the domestic market, feeling it will meet “a fast-growing demand,” according to Shmakov.
Another pioneer in Internet banking solutions is PayU, an international payment solution provider which came to the Russian market in 2011. “We have prepared a joint program with banks to promote these new payment methods,” PayU representative Yulia Ovcharenko told EWDN.
As explained in detail in EWDN’s report on Russian e-commerce, bank cards are still little used in Russia – be it online or offline – with cash remaining the predominant payment method. On e-commerce sites, payment by bank cards rarely exceed 15% of sales as far as physical goods are concerned, even though the percentage is usually higher for online services and virtual goods. Recurring payments are still the exception.
