Cash is probably the first method of payment that comes to mind when people think about the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
However, the adage ‘cash is king’ might not be accurate for much longer in MENA.
In a region buzzing with payment innovation, a surge in ecommerce has triggered a dramatic shift in consumer habits. More people are now opting for digital payment methods, slowly but surely leaving cash behind.
As a business operating in MENA, how should you approach your regional payment strategy?
This blog will guide you through the changing landscape, explore the rise of alternative payment methods, and introduce a solution to streamline your MENA payment strategy.
Looking for an easy way to add alternative payment methods? Primer lets you access popular global and local payment methods through one API integration. Book a call to learn how we can help your business.
The rise of digital payments in MENA
Looking back just a few years ago, ecommerce was still in its infancy in MENA. Payment options were limited, consumer trust in online shopping was low, and brick-and-mortar stores dominated the retail landscape. "Mall culture" and cash transactions were deeply ingrained.
However, the region is experiencing a rapid shift toward digital commerce. While the pandemic undoubtedly accelerated this trend, it’s not the sole driver.
Governments across the region double down on building next-generation digital economies as part of a broader strategy to reduce reliance on oil. There is Vision 2030 in Saudi Arabia, the UAE Digital Government Strategy 2025, and the Qatar National Vision 2030. These all have digital commerce, digital payments, and digital financial services more broadly as core agenda items and are fostering an environment ripe for new entrants to power payment innovation.
Demographic factors also play a role. Younger generations, who are increasingly tech-savvy and digitally native, are driving demand for convenient and frictionless online shopping experiences.
As McKinsey highlights in its report on the region: “The Middle East is on the cusp of a payments revolution. Its digitization targets are aspirational but within reach. Digital payments will be central to the new normal.”
Let’s examine some statistics to illustrate the dramatic transformation in MENA’s digital commerce and payments landscape.
Popular payment methods in MENA
BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later)
The Middle East & North Africa has quietly become one of the fastest adopters of BNPL. The market is projected to reach $9.2 billion by 2024 and is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. Several factors contribute to this growth, including the increasing popularity of ecommerce, the region's young and tech-savvy population, and the potential for Sharia-compliant BNPL solutions.
The regulatory landscape for BNPL in MENA is also evolving. While Saudi Arabia has established regulations, other countries are actively developing frameworks. This regulatory activity aims to protect consumers and ensure responsible lending practices within the BNPL sector.
Brands offering BNPL across the region include Cashew, Postpay, Tabby, and Tamara.
Cash-based electronic payments
Cash-based electronic payments, or cash on delivery, were once the most popular online payment method, accounting for up to 75% of ecommerce payments in some markets. Today, its popularity is waning as individuals become more comfortable using cards, wallets, and BNPL for online shopping. However, it remains a method merchants should consider offering customers as part of their overall payment strategy.
Cards
In 2023, cards accounted for 24% of ecommerce payments and are forecasted to remain around that mark in the coming years. Cards branded by international schemes such as Mastercard and Visa are the region's most common forms of cards. However, there are also local schemes, like Mada in Saudi Arabia, Knet in Kuwait, and QPAY in Qatar.
Digital Wallets
Digital wallets are gaining significant traction in the MENA region. They offer numerous advantages: convenience, speed, security, and accessibility for banked and unbanked populations.
Key features like ease of use, secure transactions, and various top-up options contribute to their growing popularity. While global players like Alipay+, PayPal, and WeChatPay have an international presence, local and regional alternatives are often more widely used in the MENA region.
Some predict that Digital Wallets will overtake cash as the most popular payment method in the region as soon as 2027.
Image and data source: WorldPay 2024 Global Payments Report
Mobile wallets
Pass-through mobile wallets, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, are incredibly popular in some markets. One such market is the UAE, where half the population prefers using a digital wallet. Mobile wallets enable users to make convenient contactless payments via cards or digital devices.
Interested in learning about alternative payment methods in other regions?
- Learn about alternative payment methods in Asia Pacific.
- Learn about alternative payment methods in Europe.
- Learn about alternative payment methods in the US.
Why offer alternative payment methods in MENA?
The payment landscape in MENA is incredibly fast-evolving and dynamic. Offering customers the preferred alternative payment methods across different markets should be critical to a business's go-to-market strategy.
By offering their preferred payment methods, businesses can expect to:
- Increase speed and UX at the checkout
- Reduce cart abandonment
- Foster customer loyalty
- Reduce fraud risks
Learn more about why multiple payment methods are a game-changer for your business.
How Primer can help you implement alternative payment methods in MENA
As you can see, payment trends are fast changing in MENA. However, what is clear is that consumers are moving away from cards and embracing new payment methods.
However, keeping up with payment trends can be challenging. Each new payment method requires a new integration and ongoing technical maintenance.
This is where Primer comes in.
Primer is a unified payments infrastructure that centralizes multiple payment methods, providers, and fraud prevention tools into one platform—all through a single API integration. Primer eliminates technical hurdles, empowering you to scale more rapidly and seize growth opportunities without being constrained by outdated payment systems and resource limitations.
Here’s how Primer can help you:
1. Quickly add alternative payment methods with our no-code platform
With alternative payment methods in MENA rapidly growing in popularity, you must be able to adapt to trends quickly and effectively.
However, implementing alternative payment methods can be resource-intensive. You must navigate complex integrations, manage multiple provider relationships, and ensure compatibility across various platforms.
But with Primer, you can simplify the process.
Primer’s unified payment API connects you to various payment methods through a single integration. This means faster implementation, less operational overhead, and the flexibility to adapt as your business grows—without additional development resources.
You’ll be able to quickly integrate with a wide range of popular alternative payment methods—both global and MENA-specific—including:
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- PayPal
- nol Pay (UAE’s contactless payment system)
(See all of our available payment methods here)
Adding these payment methods is simple and can be added to your payment stack in just a few clicks.
Once integrated, you can use Universal Checkout to manage the payment options you present to customers. With Universal Checkout, you can simply toggle payment methods on and off based on various data points, including customer location, without needing to code.
2. Analyse payment method data in one place with Observability
How can you ensure you’re offering your customers the best payment methods?
Tracking performance is crucial, but it can be frustrating. Each APM and processor uses a unique data structure. To compare data, you must manually reconcile different formats and reporting standards, which is time-consuming and error-prone.
This isn’t an issue with Primer.
With Observability, we bring all your disparate payment data points together in one place, allowing you to use over 100 visualizations and 30+ filters to easily analyze your data based on:
- Payment method
- Customer segment
- Region
- BIN (Bank Identification Number)
- And more
With Observability, businesses in MENA can gain actionable insights into trends and adoption rates.
For example, suppose you notice low adoption rates for specific payment methods. In that case, you might refine your marketing strategies or experiment with changes to your checkout flow to improve visibility and engagement with this popular payment method.
3. Stop payment issues in their tracks with Monitors
To help you make the most of your resources, we created Monitors. This feature allows you to monitor key payment metrics (that you set) and receive real-time alerts whenever performance issues arise. It enables you to triage and solve problems quickly before they impact your bottom line.
For example, imagine an update causes issues with a popular payment method your customers rely on. Monitors will quickly detect the problem by identifying a drop in payment success rates and promptly alert you. This allows you to pinpoint the issue and take swift action to minimize its impact on your business.
There are two types of Monitors:
- Static Monitors: Define fixed benchmarks, such as an authorization rate under 90%. If performance falls below this threshold, you’ll receive an immediate alert.
- Dynamic Monitors: These monitors leverage historical data to establish acceptable ranges for metrics like transaction volumes or decline rates. When values deviate from these predicted ranges, they send notifications.
We’ll alert you through Slack, email, or web request. Monitors give you the confidence to experiment with new payment methods and check-out approaches, knowing that if performance decreases, you’ll catch it quickly.
These are just a few of the features Primer offers.
You can also:
- Recover up to 20% of failed payments by configuring Fallbacks to route failed and recoverable transactions to a secondary processor.
- Increase authorization rates by up to 4% and reduce fraud by up to 30% with network tokenization.
- Reduce 3DS friction and improve success rates with Primer 3DS
- Optimize costs and success rates with smart payment routing.
- Develop and refine your payment strategy with an expert team dedicated to your success.
How Primer helped AppsFlyer offer APMs to thousands of businesses worldwide
AppsFlyer is a leader in global marketing measurement and data analytics. It works with over 80,000 businesses worldwide, including household names like Disney, TikTok, and SHEIN.
With $400M in annual recurring revenue in 2023, AppsFlyer knows how important it is to offer the right payment methods to the right customers. However, this doesn’t come without its challenges:
“I am a team of one, reliant on our engineering team to execute my strategic plans,” Shirly Katzir Kaslasy, Senior Payments and Risk Project Manager at AppsFlyer, explains.
“We made some progress enabling certain payment methods, but with so much happening across the business, payments often had to take a back seat.”
“At the time, we were working with one PSP,” Shirly recalls. “The business recognized this as a risk and green-lighted the plans to onboard with a payments infrastructure to connect more payment services, inject agility into our payment strategy, and ultimately enhance our customers' experience.”
Impressed by Primer's usability and functionality, AppsFlyer partnered with Primer.
“Access to development resources has always been my biggest challenge,” Shirly explains. “But with Primer, that problem vanished. Now, I can add new payment methods and processors and build complex routing workflows with a few clicks and zero developer involvement. It’s a game-changer, giving me complete control over our payment strategy.’
AppsFlyer also used other Primer’s features, such as:
- Fallbacks to automatically reroute failed transactions to a backup processor and reclaim up to 20% of soft decline transactions.
- Payment routing (through Workflows) allowed Shirly to modify payment flows without engineering resources.
Primer has made it easy for AppsFlyer to add new payment methods, set up backup processor routing, and optimize workflows. This has improved their customer experience and boosted efficiency—all without adding complexity or needing significant engineering resources.
Use Primer to effortlessly add alternative payment methods in MENA
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is profoundly transforming its payment landscape. The once-dominant reign of cash is nearly over, replaced by digital payment options.
Businesses that offer their customers their preferred payment options, such as BNPL, cards, digital wallets, or mobile wallets, can reap numerous benefits, including improved checkout experiences, reduced cart abandonment rates, increased customer loyalty, and enhanced fraud prevention measures.
If you're a merchant eyeing the MENA market, it's time to embrace these alternative payment methods and ride the wave of digital innovation in the region.
Book a call to find out how Primer can help you grow in MENA
