The name MB WAY is likely to be very familiar to you. We are part of an increasingly digital world, and we have been learning to simplify our everyday actions, making them more practical and uncomplicated. If you are familiar with the MB WAY portuguese platform, you will certainly know that it made it easier – and a lot! – some daily tasks that previously took more time from us.
Not sure what MB WAY is, what it is used for, and how it works? Do you want to know how you can make your purchase and payment process more convenient and hassle-free with MB WAY? Do you have a business and want to take it to another level, making it more appealing to the consumer? We will explain everything to you in this article, in a very practical way.
MB WAY is a platform for smartphones and tablets created by SIBS, the Multibanco network. Allows making payments, transfers and top-ups, as well as making purchases at participating online and physical stores. If you want your online purchases to be made as securely as possible, MB WAY also allows you to generate MB NET virtual cards.
If you are going out for lunch with colleagues from your company, when sharing your account, MB WAY will also be very useful.
One of the features of the platform allows you to share a certain amount, by the number of people you want. Thus, in a very practical and quick way, MB WAY does the math for you, and notifies each of these people about the amount you have to pay. Upon payment by each party, the amounts will be immediately credited to your account.
In addition, with MB WAY you can also send and receive money from your contacts - instantly - even if they belong to a different bank than yours. This way, you'll never have to ask your friends for the IBAN whenever you need to transfer some value to them.
Thanks to MB WAY you can also withdraw money from your smartphone without having your card nearby... all just a click away. It's perfect, isn't it?!
Joining MB WAY is very easy, and there are two ways to do it: via ATM or via app. In the following table, I show you how to proceed with the adhesion, in the two possible ways.
MB WAY does not charge any type of fee or commission for transactions carried out in the application.
On January 1, 2021, new rules related to commissions imposed by banking entities entered into force, with regard to the main operations carried out by third-party platforms - as is the case with MB WAY. These include sending money, making transfers and paying for services or purchases.
Exemption from costs occurs within certain amounts and number of operations performed, for example:
Certainly, you have already realized that the creation of the MB WAY platform has revolutionized and simplified many of the traditional day-to-day operations. However, anything that combines technology and money can always raise some doubts regarding our privacy and security as users.
Among the countries with the highest use of bank cards, Portugal has the lowest levels of fraud. This factor led the European Central Bank to consider our country as one of those with the safest payment method.
The fact that the MB WAY platform is managed by SIBS, the same network that manages the Multibanco, can contribute to giving us a little more confidence in its use.
In case you didn't know, MB WAY is already the second most used payment method by the Portuguese. According to the Basef Banca study by Marktest carried out in February 2019, around 1.595 thousand Portuguese people already make payments with their mobile phone through the MB WAY service - a number that corresponds to 18% of mainland residents, with over 15 years and bank account holders.
No matter how secure the platform is, and like any other payment method used, it is always necessary to protect ourselves as consumers and users. Among the various safety recommendations below, I highlight the most important ones:
With the outbreak of the pandemic and mandatory confinement, online shopping skyrocketed. As it is the most convenient way to shop, it is important that the payment methods are also the same and, more importantly, that they are adapted to our needs.
It is true that payments via Multibanco Reference lead the TOP of the payment methods most used by consumers in the e-commerce universe, followed by payments by MB WAY Card or Debit/Credit Card, as can be seen in the study below, carried out by Deloitte in 2016, which characterizes e-commerce in Portugal.
However, these three forms of payment are far from being the most practical and immediate, in the eyes of today's consumer!
According to data from the above-mentioned study, MB NET cards occupy second place in the table – with a percentage of 33% – of the payment methods most used by the Portuguese, when formalizing their online purchases.
An MB NET card is precisely a virtual credit card.
When using a virtual card to pay for your purchases, you are not providing your real bank card details. It is a unique purchase card that has an amount customized by the user (limit defined in the MB WAY app) and an expiration date, allowing payment to be made in a much safer and more direct way.
There is also a daily limit on MB WAY for creating virtual cards. This method is highly recommended if you are not 100% sure about the credibility of a particular site, for example.
By allowing your customers to pay for your company's services through MB WAY, you will not only modernize and enhance your business, but also make it more attractive!
By the way, did you know that our Zone Soft software has already integrated the Mbway service? Companies like yours can now accept payments made directly from the app. You can find more details about this topic here!
In current contexts, and with the onset of the pandemic, most customers started to favor payment without physical contact, either through the Contactless method in physical stores (present in the current majority of bank cards) or through the use of the MB WAY platform.
When using the MB WAY when paying for their purchases, the customer will not need to have their wallet nearby, nor will they have to carry their card in order to pay for their purchases, thus avoiding direct contact. Through a QR code that appears on the TPA terminal screen at the time of payment, the customer authorizes, directly in the MB WAY application and without additional fee, the debit of the amount in question. Payment is made and immediately available.
This fact can be proven if we look at the following analysis carried out by Deloitte. This study found that 3 of the most decisive factors in an online purchase are:
It is true that Portuguese consumers, who mostly use the online universe to make their purchases, value, above all, the convenience of the entire procedure, whether because of the inconvenience of traveling to a physical store, or because the entire checkout process is faster and more intuitive. The customer chooses, pays and receives their purchases without leaving the house! Will there be a more practical purchase process?!
Joining MB WAY by companies has no cost whatsoever and can be a great advantage, especially in a pandemic context, such as the one in which we live.
If your company has a digital presence through e-commerce, it is important that you make MB WAY payments available in your online store. Payment by the customer can be made via the MB NET card – as mentioned above – or, solely, via the mobile number associated with the consumer's MB WAY app.
To motivate companies to join, MB WAY has created a very attractive incentive: if at least 10% of your store's total monthly purchases are made through the platform, you earn 5% of the amount received!
To join MB WAY and receive payments, all you need to do is have an ATM at your establishment.
The fact that MB WAY is a much more immediate payment method – when compared to traditional methods – also allows for a decrease in the rate of “abandonment of the cart” at checkout by the consumer, because, in case you didn't know, our country remains one of those with the highest rates. And you may be asking yourself: “but what drives a potential interested in myservices/products to, at the end of the process, not formalize the purchase on my website?” The answer, most of the time, is that your digital company is not providing the most practical answer to the demands of today's consumer.
The reduced number of payment methods available in the vast majority of e-commerce stores, continues to be a major obstacle in the eyes of the customer, as they expect to complete their payments in the most instantaneous way possible, and often the methods available are not the most practical!
As you can already see, joining the MB WAY by your company will only bring benefits. In addition to being a very simple process, you will be “one step ahead” towards the success of your sales. Here is the "magic formula":
If at the beginning of this article, I had no idea what “the MB WAY revolution” was and how much it made our lives easier, I hope it has, at least, been clarified!
If you are a trader and looking to enhance your company's management, you can always contact us. We have several services that will complete your business. We promise to help!
