Point-of-sale platform Lightspeed on Tuesday (Aug. 3) announced that hospitality merchants in Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands now have access to Lightspeed Payments, joining hospitality businesses in the U.S. and retailers in Canada and the U.S.
Lightspeed plans to expand the availability of Lightspeed Payments to merchants in Asia-Pacific, marking an important step as more than 40 percent of Lightspeed’s customers are outside North America.
“The hospitality industry in Europe is rebounding just in time for summer holidays, and this is a crucial time for the small and medium-sized businesses we serve in that region,” said Jona Georgiou, Lightspeed’s global general manager of payments, in the company announcement.
“This expansion empowers our customers around the world to generate faster, more secure transactions that give them richer data about their business and meet the needs of their guests,” she said.
About 95 percent of small business owners and consumers in the U.K. told Lightspeed in a survey that they believe integrated payments “provide significant cost savings.” More than half of French consumers now prefer to make mobile payments or pay with a credit or debit card or make mobile payments, and 62 percent prefer contactless payments for speed and sanitary reasons.
A majority of German consumers said independent businesses should be required to offer at least one form of electronic payment in addition to a cash option, according to a recent Bitkom study.
Related News: Lightspeed Buys NuORDER To Link Merchants, Suppliers
In June, Lightspeed acquired B2B eCommerce platform NuORDER and software-as-a-service (SaaS) eCommerce company Ecwid in a move to fuse the commerce ecosystem and advance the launch of new businesses.
Lightspeed, dual-listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange, snapped up Ecwid for $500 million, and NuOrder for $425 million. The acquisitions will give Lightspeed clients expanded inroads to take advantage of the digital economy, enhanced supply chain management and customer experience data.
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