QR code payments, a new reality
One side effect of COVID-19 is how fast technological development is moving. In this post we discuss how reopening would affect eCommerce, but what about physical stores? What will change? This situation has accelerated the move into a fully connected world and started to blur the lines between physical stores and digital solutions.
PayPal launches a new payment method to avoid physical contact
With lockdown easing and stores reopening, certain challenges have arisen in maintaining social distancing, one of which is paying with cash or card.
Exchanging bills and coins or entering a PIN on a card terminal may be incompatible with keeping 2 meters between buyer and seller and other protective measures. That’s why PayPal will allow payments via QR codes. How will it work?
At checkout, customers will be able to scan a QR code that takes them to their PayPal account to complete payment. It’s very easy for stores to implement, since small businesses can use the same QR code for all their sales. They just need to print it out and display it in the window or on the counter. Customers open the PayPal app, point their phone camera and complete the payment. Easy, fast and with no middlemen.
WhatsApp started using this kind of technology back in 2018. WhatsApp Pay was an experiment in India designed for person-to-person money transfers, but where it leads remains to be seen. The company plans to bring WhatsApp payments to Spain and other countries.
QR payments in China, already a reality
In the Chinese market, where Trilogi has years of experience, QR payments have been a reality for a long time. This way, merchants can save part of the fees banks charge for card payments and don’t need any device if the customer isn’t carrying cash.
Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat are the two platforms that enable this type of payment. They’re becoming ecosystem apps where users do a huge range of things within the same app. 65 percent of China’s more than 753 million smartphone users had activated mobile payments by the end of 2017.
In this new landscape, banks take a back seat. Some stores no longer have card terminals. Taxis, small shops, restaurants, public transport… countless businesses have seen how payments have changed and how cards and cash are starting to fall out of use in China.
In the West we’re used to using different apps, one for each task, but the market seems to be heading toward more all-in-one apps with every feature built in. Will Facebook, with WhatsApp leading the way, be the one to win this prize?
