Eftpos selects its subsidiary, Beem It, to build the company’s national QR code utility—starting immediately.
The new QR code payments capability, which will be offered by Eftpos, is expected to be in market as early as July 2021, with multiple merchants in trial.
Eftpos CEO Stephen Benton says that following a global tender process, Eftpos chose Beem It to build the QR code utility because of “its previous experience with QR codes in the Australian market, the strength of its team, and its familiarity with the Eftpos network.”
“It was great that we have the right expertise to build the new QR payments utility inside the Beem It team and we can get to work right away”, Benton says.
Benton says it is important because the “QR will provide Australian consumers and merchants with better data-rich payments experiences no matter where they choose to shop—online, on their mobile or at the checkout.”
“It is opportune because Australians are now very familiar with using QR codes for activities like Covid-19 check-ins”, and Benton claims “they are increasingly turning to new ways of shopping in the digital environment.”
Eftpos acquired Beem It, an Australian payments app, which “enables consumers to send and receive money using their phone in seconds, in November 2020 to help diversify the business and move further into the digital ecosystem.”
Both are designing the new national QR code utility to be low cost to facilitate incentives for merchants and consumers such as loyalty, offers, and receipts. The national rollout is expected to be completed in 2022. Merchants and consumers will connect to the utility using a unique QR code.
This enables consumers to initiate and transact securely with their preferred digital wallet. This innovative multi-interaction connectivity creates a new experience beyond payments, powered by Eftpos emerging application programming interface (APIs).
Ciaran Forde, acting Beem It CEO, says the build was an exciting opportunity It because Eftpos QR orchestration would help merchants create better experiences for their customers and potentially reduce costs.
“The opportunity to build piece of infrastructure that has the ability to fundamentally change how payments are made in Australia is an exciting one”, Forde notes. “Beem It’s app enabled a new way to pay and get paid, and we look forward to taking that approach to the world of merchant payments where there is immense undiscovered value for consumers and merchants.”
