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Arghya Raihan

The Daily Star

Publication Date : 12-02-2013

Once a month, Mrs Hossain has to go to her children's school and pay their monthly tuition fees, about Tk 10,000 (US$ 125.5). Just the other day, she heard from a friend how she got mugged on her way back from the bank. Understandably, she feels nervous carrying that much cash around, but she doesn't really have a choice.

Mr Islam is a bachelor. To save time, he avails of one of the services that deliver groceries right to his doorstep. Only sometimes, he does not have the ready cash to pay for everything he needs. He wishes he could use his credit card, but unfortunately the service does not accept one.

This is where Walleto comes in. Walleto is an online payment gateway system, launched in Bangladesh in October last year by MCC Ltd. The company introduced Walleto to help entrepreneurs, organisations and individuals enter the e-commerce sector.

Walleto can be integrated with any existing website of any organisation, and just like that, that organisation becomes capable of accepting payments online. It makes it possible for money to change hands without the parties involved getting up from their chairs.

Bangladesh is no longer a stranger to online commercial activity. There are around 170 Bangladeshi e-commerce sites out there, peddling everything from electronics to books to groceries. Some allow you to order online and pay on delivery; only a handful, however, allows online transactions.

The primary obstacle to more businesses adopting the online payment option is that it is a time-consuming and complex process. The organisation would need to make detailed contracts with the bank of their choice and hire a software company to develop a payment gateway system to fit their needs.

The strength of Walleto is that it has already done all of that. If any organisation wants the advantages of accepting payments online, they simply need subscribe to Walleto. It has already made contracts with the banks and has already developed a universal payment gateway system.

Currently, Walleto accepts payments using Visa, Mastercard, the BRAC Bank Debit card and the Dutch-Bangla Nexus card. This already accounts for more than two million subscribers from Visa and Mastercard alone. This is only the beginning. Walleto will soon expand to include payment options from credit and debit cards from all the big banks to online payment options like Paypal to mobile payment options. Walleto aims to be a universal payment gateway system, accepting and processing payments via all possible electronic avenues.

This versatility means that Walleto is a one-size-fits-all solution for all sorts of businesses looking to enter the e-commerce sector. From airline bookings to buying books online, to booking a table at a high-end restaurant to sending money to your family back home, to gaming online and shopping for clothes from online catalogues,all will be made possible through the system. Like Amazon or e-Bay, it aims to become a portal through which Bangladeshis will be able to buy anything and more than those sites, where people can do more to donate to worthy charities and add to the remittance flow.