The Tribune

A Bahamas-based information technology provider yesterday said e-commerce system usage will increase once companies and consumers become more “familiar” with it.

Scott MacKenzie, Cloud Carib’s chief executive, told Tribune Business that it took participants in developed markets some time to trust e-commerce when it first started to emerge as a viable system for transacting in goods and services some 30 years ago.

“I think as more people consume services online, whether it’s Amazon or buying a movie or paying a bill online, the more it will become commonplace and everybody will just use it,” he added.

Mr Mackenzie was responding to concerns raised by the findings from a recent Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) survey, which discovered that while a significant number of firms use social media to engage customers, more than half did not have an e-commerce platform or way to receive payments online.

“Online payment gateways for small businesses is a tremendous value for SMEs because it saves them so much time and effort, and their bookkeeping,” Mr MacKenzie added.

He pointed to the Chinese example, and how methods of electronic payments have exploded in that country despite there being large rural sectors alongside metropolitan cities. “China is very advanced now,” Mr Mackenzie said.

“Now, when you go to China, you will see everybody - and it doesn’t matter where you are in China - everybody is using digital currency. Nobody pays with paper, fiat cash any more. Everybody uses their phones.

“So it doesn’t take long once people start to use it and feel confident with it. It can very quickly transform a society. I think that’s where The Bahamas is; right at that transition point, or that inflection point, where in the next few years the younger generation will be the first adopters. They’ll all start using it for digital everything.”

The Central Bank is presently rolling out the Bahamian digital currency, the Sand Dollar, with moves being made to integrate this with the commercial banking system so that it can be aligned with deposits and withdrawals from bank accounts. Officials have said the Clearing House integration will be in place by the start of 2022.

Mr MacKenzie said: “There is no reason for small businesses to be afraid or put off by payment gateways. Most payment systems are secure, and the reason for that is, in order to connect to payment gateways, they have to be what’s called PCI or payment card industry, DSS certified.

“So most of them have to go through very stringent security testing to be connected to payment systems, like Swift or banking system. They are very particular about who connects to those. So in order for you to be able to process payments you have to go and get all of these sorts of certificates.”