Quick Tap, Quick Pay

qualicominnovations
Jun 23, 2016
3 min read

WeChat (微信) literally means "micro message" in Chinese. If you don't know what WeChat is, half of me wants to wonder if you've been living under a rock and the other half completely understands - it's not quite popular outside of China. But I'm here to educate, so here's what WeChat is: a mobile text and voice messaging communication service developed by a company called Tencent in China. It's been around since 2011 and is one of the biggest messaging apps used predominantly in China. It's basically the equivalent of iMessage for all you Apple users, or Whatsapp, or Line, etc. One of its most frequent uses is its ability for hold-to-talk voice messaging. When you're on the MTR in Hong Kong and you see a person holding and speaking into their phone, there's a high certainty they're using WeChat (Whatsapp is definitely a possibility but we're trying to focus more on WeChat right now). WeChat is quickly rising in the ranks of social messaging and they've even expanded its resources to create special versions of WeChat, such as Enterprise WeChat, which helps communication between companies and other businesses. According to Wikipedia, this special app is "meant to help employees separate work from private life." I would go read more about it if you're a business in China or have relations to China. Not only is WeChat integrating third-party services, but they've also shifted their focus on creating a payment method through WeChat - WeChat Pay.

Around 2,000 million people in the world uses a smartphone and so what better way is there to conveniently pay for that cute shirt you saw at a little boutique store than using your phone? Today's retail tech is focused on customer values and experience, and tackling convenience in regards to customer transactions has been a win. The obvious answer: Utilize the phone (we are all phoneholics after all).

In China, Alibaba came out with Alipay, a third-party online payment platform in 2004. Think PayPal (for all you American folks) but based in China. It was an obvious hit and currently, they have 400 million registered users (last updated in Jan 2016). But it didn't have the same convenience as WeChat Pay, which is already a part of a social messaging platform that's insanely popular in China. From their last quarter reports, WeChat Pay had 697 million registered users and it's expected to exponentially increase. These two methods of payments have revolutionized the way customers pay, especially in Asia, and it won't stop here; smartphone users are escalating and so will mobile payment methods. Recently in October 2014, Apple finally caught up and released their own third-party payment platform, Apple Pay.

Apple Pay acts as a mobile payment and digital wallet and has plans to land in Hong Kong this summer 2016. A number of lenders in the city have already confirmed their support for this newly anticipated mobile payment, including 7/11, Sasa and Lane Crawford, among many others, and this just proves to show how quickly tech is becoming an even bigger part of our everyday lives (too big maybe?). So for those in Hong Kong, if you've got an iPhone or a nice little iWatch waiting to be used a lot more frequently, here's the chance!

Now with these payment methods widely used, businesses have to start integrating these platforms into their software and quickly adapt to this innovation. Lagging behind new technology won't get you anywhere and it'll start being frustrating for your recurring customers - take your grandparents not learning how to text for example. Now that's something we can all share a common annoyance with. You don't want that (for your business) and neither do we.

So what exactly are the benefits of integrating mobile payments into your stores (other than the fact millions are using it as a form of payment)? Here's an article by American Express that can give you the top 5 reasons why you (or your techies) should be on your computer right now updating your software (Click Here to Read).

Luckily, Retailarc has integrated different payment methods into our POS system. So using our POS, your customers will have the opportunity to tap their iWatch to pay (and feel really cool) or use their phones - how absolutely convenient. With an ascending number of Alipay/WeChat Pay/Apple Pay users, hopefully your dollars signs will grow too.