Add Square to the growing list of fintechs providing QR code-based payments to their users. In this case, Square is leveraging its strengths in the restaurant vertical. Using Square Online, restaurant operators enable customers to use smartphone cameras to scan QR codes at tableside.
This e-commerce transaction also allows diners to place a food order that goes directly to kitchen without server intervention. As restaurants struggle to recover from the COVID-19 shutdown, this is a winning solution, given the social distance-driven, contactless payments that both employees and consumers seek.
The following excerpt from a VentureBeat article reports more on the topic:
Square has introduced a new self-serve ordering feature for restaurants that allows dine-in customers to order and pay for their food through their phones, minimizing physical contact with staff.
The restaurant industry has been among the hardest hit by the global pandemic, though this has led to a surge in demand for meal deliveries. As the world eases out of lockdown, brick-and-mortar eateries have embraced technology as a way to entice customers back through their doors — the humble QR code has proved particularly popular, with many outlets turning to the matrix barcode format to deliver menus directly to customers’ mobile devices.
In this vein, Jack Dorsey’s Square, which is perhaps better known for its point-of-sale (POS) system that allows merchants to accept card payments through a smartphone or tablet, has been expanding and adapting its services to this “new normal.” Merchants that are signed up to Square Online, Square’s ecommerce offering, can now create QR codes and place them at tables or booths. Using the camera on their phones, customers scan the QR code and the menu opens on their device, where they can select items and pay in one fell swoop.
Overview by Raymond Pucci, Director, Merchant Services at Mercator Advisory Group
