In a compelling interview with SafetyDetectives, Anastasia Semenkova, the recently appointed CEO of Payop, shares her journey from starting as a sales manager to ascending to the helm of a leading payment service provider. With a keen focus on revolutionizing the way businesses handle online transactions, Semenkova offers an insider’s view on Payop’s mission to simplify global payments. Her insights delve into the unique approach Payop adopts to distinguish itself in the crowded market of payment processing platforms, emphasizing the importance of catering to local payment preferences and staying ahead of fraudsters with innovative technology. This conversation sheds light on the critical aspects businesses should consider when selecting a payment processing partner and dispels common myths about payment processing, highlighting Payop’s commitment to delivering tailored, efficient payment solutions to its clients worldwide.
Can you please introduce yourself and your role at Payop?
My name is Anastasia Semenkova. My journey with the company began in 2019 when I joined as a sales manager, developing Payop’s B2B connections. Since then, I have changed several positions and just a few months ago became CEO, which I am very excited about!
I’ll also shortly introduce our company. Payop is a payment service provider. We use technology and our market knowledge to make easy payments on the website available anywhere in the world. Our platform offers an extensive range of solutions designed to cater to the diverse needs of businesses.
What sets Payop apart from other payment processing platforms in the market?
As payment professionals, our goal is not to offer our clients the easiest and best-known methods but to get the best results for them. We explain to website owners that having a Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal is insufficient to collect payments worldwide. For instance, only 6% of people in Indonesia have cards at all—they use local payment options. And we at Payop offer the biggest number of international and local payment methods at a single checkout.
Among those methods is the Pay-by-Bank channel developed by Payop. It’s an EU-supported open banking technology that grants payment collection by bank transfers in just 3 clicks. We consider it to be the future of payments in Europe.
Can you explain how Payop addresses the challenges businesses face when it comes to accepting online payments?
We offer a wide selection of payment methods, catering to each client’s specific needs and operation geography. A smooth payment experience is crucial for our merchants, so we’re continuously working to maximise conversion rates and uptime on our methods.
The key to success here is to listen to your customers, their feedback is the best way to understand what direction to take.
How do payment processors stay ahead of fraudsters and evolving fraud techniques?
We work every day to be sure that we are one step ahead of fraudsters. Payop has a complex protection system, that includes manual checks, payment channel analysis, built-in antifraud system with thousands of rules we create. Our clients benefit from this approach, because we can quickly react to a new fraud pattern on one websites and block it across the entire Payop system.
What are some of the key factors businesses should consider when choosing a payment processing partner?
First of all it must be a company with a history. Many new payment companies, as we have noticed, exit this business during the first two years on the market. Those who manage to survive in the market find their niche and work with specific industries.
Second, it’s a quality of communication with your payment partner. Some systems will offer to send a ticket and make you wait weeks for a reply. Merchants who have experienced such problems realise how beneficial it is for the business when they can contact their payment partner at any time and get a prompt response.
What are some of the biggest misconceptions or myths about payment processing that you encounter?
We noticed that business owners quite often choose payment methods with large marketing budgets. You know, the ones that everyone’s heard about. But payers don’t want famous. They want to make a fast and easy purchase using a familiar method they see in grocery stores, shopping malls, or when paying utility bills. Payop Team offers exactly that – methods that clients actually prefer. We advise our merchants to use local methods that are popular according to our internal statistics.