How innovations in payment platforms are driving growth
Oracle Food & Beverage thoroughly explains why this would mean better profits for brands.
Amongst the many changes sweeping the global QSR industry today is the continued rise in the number of payment options being made available to consumers. Especially so in Australia, which some experts predict will become the Asia-Pacific’s first cashless society by 2022.
In fact, Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe said in December 2019 that cash transactions continued to decline, with cash now accounting for just around a quarter of day-to-day transactions, and most of these are for small-value payments.
The launch of the bank’s New Payments Platform – the NPP – in early 2018 played its part in Australia’s transition towards a cashless society. The new payments infrastructure seeks to allow consumers and businesses to make real-time, 24/7 payments with richer data and simple addressing using PayIDs.
According to Lowe, the platform saw monthly transaction values and volumes have both tripled over the past year. In November, the platform processed an average of 1.1 million payments each day, worth about $1.1 billion, with the rate of take-up of fast retail payments in Australia comparatively quicker than that in most other countries that have also introduced fast payments.
Clearly, consumers want more choices regarding their payment platforms, and many players in the QSR industry are responding.
Pizza giant Domino’s have started dipping its toes into going fully cashless by trialling Tap & Take stores that accept a variety of payment methods, including credit and debit cards, but not cash. Meanwhile, the startup Origin Kebabs has partnered with TravelbyBit, a digital currency platform, to allow for its customers to use cryptocurrency such as bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin for their payments.
Concept stores like HZ (formerly known as Hey Zeus) have gone cashless in an effort to cut the operational and security costs of cash transactions, all while experimenting with other emerging technologies like automation.
Even convenience stores like 7-Eleven are shifting towards digital payments through trials of a ‘cashless and cardless’ concept stores where customers use their smartphones to complete their transactions.
Payment platforms becoming the norm
Fiona Southam, Sales Director ANZ at solutions provider Oracle Food and Beverage, told QSR Media in an interview that payment platforms have become the norm in the country, with many restaurants integrating different platforms with their POS systems, such as their MICROS products.
The use of wearables, she said, are growing, with more people paying for their orders through Apple Watch or their mobile devices. Moreover, many chains are adopting and integrating with online payment service providers such as Alipay, WePay, and even providers like Zip pay, Afterpay, which allow consumers to make the purchase now and pay later.
These innovations are opening up completely new avenues in payments that could further improve or strengthen a company’s services. Sophisticated technologies, for instance, can allow for dynamic currency conversion-- the option to pay in foreign currencies--, the ability to automatically add a surcharge to a transaction, or even do least cost routing. If there is more than one way for the transaction to be charged via different merchant gateways, it can route via the cheapest one.
“For the consumer side, payment platforms mean faster transactions, the visibility of where they have spent their money, as well as easier integration into expenses and receipt management,” Southam said.
“For operators, this reduces the exposure for theft, allows for easier more efficient reconciliation, and secure integration that lessens the chance of errors and loss of revenue.”
Whilst she admits that some businesses and consumers still prefer to pay with cash due to its flexibility, Southam said that the processing cash is much less efficient than that of cashless systems.
“With technology comes improved efficiency, improved speed of service, better customer service and engagement – this can easily translate into increased revenue,” she added. “It’s all about convenience and improving your service.”
