Partnership Increases Mobile Wallet Payments in Food Retail
Grocery POS company IT Retail Inc. has partnered with Citcon to bring mobile wallet payments to the grocery industry — enabling faster transition to cashless operating in stores.
Citron allows billions of mobile wallet consumers to shop and pay anywhere, anytime around the world with its digital payment offering. Its technology offers a variety of wallet brands, including PayPal, Venmo, AliPay and WeChat Pay.
The company's new collaboration with IT Retail gives grocery stores using IT Retail POS an immediate opportunity to start accepting payments from mobile wallets in stores. Mobile wallets are highly secure due to the use of dynamic QR codes, and safe due to their contactless nature.
“This partnership will dramatically increase penetration of PayPal, Venmo and other wallets in North American grocery stores,” said Wei Jiang, president of Citcon. “Following our similar partnership announcements in travel, hospitality and retail, it grows the footprint of merchants who will be able to accept mobile wallets and sets the stage for a rapid expansion of contactless, QR-based mobile wallet usage by consumers in the U.S.”
More shoppers are certainly clamoring for access to this type of payment. In a survey of 2,000 U.S. adult consumers, Elkhorn, Neb.-based payment services provider ACI Worldwide found that 35% of grocery shoppers would leave their preferred grocers for others that allow them to pay in-store in a touchless manner.
The survey revealed that contactless credit cards (43%) and contactless debit cards (39%) are the two most preferred touchless payment options, followed by digital wallets (30%), cards on file (25%) and QR codes (18%). The survey also showed that a little more than 40% of Millennial and Gen X shoppers are willing to switch to grocery stores that offer touchless payment options.
“This partnership will increase grocer profitability while allowing more opportunities to satisfy customers during a time when contactless payments are very desirable,” said fourth-generation grocer George Goodwin, marketing head at Riverside, California-based IT Retail. “Our strong partnership will keep profitability up while maintaining an excellent customer experience in and outside the store.”
IT Retail is available is in seven countries and has more than 7,000 licenses in grocery stores ranging from one-lane checkouts to large chains.
Founded in 2015, San Jose, California-based Citcon is a total omnichannel commerce payment provider. With five regional offices in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, Citcon is the only fully licensed U.S.-based acquirer of all three Chinese payment brands: Alipay, WeChat Pay and China UnionPay.
