The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A online delivery service provider yesterday said many companies are unable to fully exploit the sales platform it provides because they lack the means to receive payment other than cash.

Granville Collie, MUTRU’s managing director, told Tribune Business he is finding it difficult to collect money on behalf of vendors using the platform because too few are able to collect payments beyond the store register. He explained that the absence of e-commerce solutions means there is no other way for them to conduct transactions.

Mr Collie said: “Right now we offer a cash-on-delivery platform for customers that may not have a website for their customers to pay for the items. So that’s what we are resorting to have to do, but we would prefer to not have a cash transaction and we would prefer to just be cashless.

“Right now it is very hard for us to accept payments.There are a lot of hoops you have to jump through just to try and allow or accept payments to your website, and a lot of small businesses don’t have access to enough capital or even a simple solution that they can just have items paid for.”

Arguing that the use of digital payment providers make things more difficult, Mr Collie added: “Most of their platforms don’t go directly to your bank account; it first has to go to a separate account.”

He argued that, from a “safety perspective”, it is better to be cashless in the delivery business, while it is also more convenient if customers can pay his clients online and have everything facilitated before they make the delivery.

“I wouldn’t have to worry or pay as much fees because, when I accept cash and deposit that to my bank, then I have to send it back to the retailer that I am accepting that cash on behalf of and fees are associated with all of those transactions that are taking place along the way,” said Mr Collie.

“If we can have a simplified way to accept payments, because going through the Central Bank all the time doesn’t make any sense...... If we could at least accept PayPal, Visa and Mastercard or any credit card more easily, without all of this jumping through hoops and without having to have large amounts of capital or without having to have a significant amount of influence, then that definitely would do a lot in terms of just e-commerce in The Bahamas in general; not just in delivery services, but in commerce in general.”

MUTRU is a delivery service provider that launched with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to help small businesses beat the COVID-19 restrictions on in-store customers and non-essential business closures.

Mr Collie added: “We are different from on-demand services like Kraven that delivers food on demand. We deliver non-perishable goods like clothing, car parts, small equipment, shoes and things like that.

“So with our business we understand that people need to become acclimated to the idea of delivery but everything is cool. I have no complaints. People are warming up more to the idea of delivery, but it’s kind of a slow process.”