This has been one of the biggest (and most requested) updates on the PayFast engine for a while: the removal of buyer registration.

Historically, when a buyer made a payment using PayFast, the payment flow went:

1. Buyer finds products/services on seller’s site and initiates payment process
2. Buyer gets redirected to the PayFast payment engine
3. Buyer is required to enter a password (creating a PayFast Basic account)
4. Buyer makes successful payment and gets redirected back to the seller’s site

By removing step number three (in the list above), we are expecting to see an increase in successful payment transactions.

So, from now on then for:

Existing buyers

All buyers with existing/active accounts (those who have paid with PayFast before), will be emailed and asked if they want to keep their PayFast “Basic” account (they can opt-in, should they choose to do so). Some buyers might find it convenient to have an account (to make payments from, that is), as they can securely save their credit card information to the account, speeding up the payment process. Those who don’t opt-in to keep their PayFast account, will have their account removed and have the same payment flow as first-time buyers.

New/future buyers

There will be no password requirement when paying with PayFast. A link will be shown in the small print at the bottom of the PayFast engine to create an (optional) account, for those who want to opt-in and have their card numbers saved. This is applicable to all email addresses which have not been registered with PayFast before.

So in short we’re now catering to everyone: those who prefer to just make a payment without creating a PayFast account, those who prefer to create an account and save their card details and those who might want to use PayFast a few times and then maybe create an account at some stage in the future.

We’re happy to –hot on the heels of our new payment engine redesign– roll out yet another big user-experience upgrade, helping our sellers to get paid, faster.

Any questions? Reach out to our friendly Support Team.