M-Pesa has become the new world order, between February and March, many e-commerce platforms have been incorporating the Mobile money services and AliExpress has not been left behind.
AliExpress is a popular Chinese e-commerce platform that rivals the likes of Amazon, but for the Asian market and to a larger extent, Africa (Kenya). Some of you have, from time to time, imported products using the platform, and the popularity of the service has prompted the integration of a new payment system.
Now, customers can pay for their wares from AliExpress using M-PESA. The integration of the payment system can be accessed via AliExpress app (not on the web, for now).
This is a key development considering M-PESA is now an undisputed mobile money solution in Kenya. According to Safaricom, M-PESA processes 17 million transactions every day, or 25,000 transactions per minute.
This follows M-PESA Global’s transition that only supported remittances to payments with the likes of Western Union as announced in November 2018.
AliExpress has been growing its base in Kenya, especially with folks who are on a constant lookout for electronics deals. It’s going to get easier to pay for selected items without using other cumbersome solutions.
AliExpress will also present pricing in Kenya Shillings, which should ease currency conversions.
After purchasing and security confirmations, the entire bill (in KES) can be authenticated by keying in your M-PESA PIN. Deliveries are made to postal addresses (as it has been the case).
Safaricom says M-PESA payments will be integrated in AliExpress.com in a couple of weeks.
On the other hand, Safaricom’s e-commerce platform Masoko announced a development that will see customers pick their deliveries from MPESA agents near their home, at a small fee. This aids convenience especially in cases where recipients are not within their homes.