The retailer’s completed the first phase of a pilot allowing customers to use cryptocurrency on a smartphone app, at the till. This will promote financial inclusion says Pick n Pay.
Bruce Whitfield interviews Chris Shortt, Pick n Pay Group Executive for Information and Technology.
– Pick n Pay has completed the first phase of a new pilot that allows customers to pay with crypto using an app on their smartphones.
– “This new technology means we can provide an affordable service for high volume, low-value transactions that will promote financial inclusion in South Africa.”
How would you like to pay for your weekly grocery shop in cryptocurrency?
Well, Pick n Pay wants to make transactions via crypto more accessible to millions of people.
The retailer says it’s completed the first phase of a new pilot that allows customers to pay with crypto using an app on their smartphones.
Payment service technology was tested that enables customers to buy groceries at till points with any Bitcoin Lightning-enabled app (such as BlueWallet or Muun).
Pick n Pay ran the pilot programme in 10 Western Cape stores over the past five months with pre-selected testers.
The pilot’s now been extended to a further 29 outlets for testing with customers and the intention is to roll it out to all stores in the coming months.
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The retailer promises the transaction is as easy and secure as swiping a debit or credit card.
This new technology means we can provide an affordable service for high volume, low-value transactions that will promote financial inclusion in South Africa.
Chris Shortt, Group Executive: Information and Technology – Pick n Pay
Bruce Whitfield interviews Chris Shortt, Pick n Pay Group Executive for Information and Technology (CITO).
We have a drive to innovate for our customers… We’ve tried contactless and we’ve moved into various other methods… and cryptocurrency was one we trialled some time ago… now technology has moved on as it does…
Chris Shortt, Group Executive: Information and Technology – Pick n Pay
We wanted to see if some of the newer technology was better, faster and easier to use for customers… and so far it seems to have been successful.
Chris Shortt, Group Executive: Information and Technology – Pick n Pay
Shortt says there’s not a huge demand for this payment service at the moment but there is growing usage as people become more familiar with crypto.
With a change like this there will also always be some early adopters who’re keen to try and push the boundaries, he adds.
The process we follow is a very clear innovation path. We trial it close to home first; we then widen that with both users and stores and then we read the data… and then decide where else we would want to give it a go.
Chris Shortt, Group Executive: Information and Technology – Pick n Pay
Our third wave now, which is the additional 29 stores, is based on this mining of information…
Chris Shortt, Group Executive: Information and Technology – Pick n Pay
Shortt says Pick n Pay’s investment in the infrastructure for other payment options is in fact paying off, as this is re-used for the crypto service.
“We just point it in a different direction, so it hasn’t been more complicated than it needed to be.”
To be able to make crypto payments at Pick n Pay in future you need to keep your bitcoin in a “lightning wallet” Shortt explains.
You buy cryptocurrency in an exchange like Luno locally, transfer from that into your wallet and then you actually scan the QR code at the till. That triggers a conversion from the cryptocurrency in your wallet into rand…
Chris Shortt, Group Executive: Information and Technology – Pick n Pay
For more detail, scroll to the top and listen to the interview
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