Early in the pandemic, as businesses frantically sought contactless ordering and payment options, the QR code emerged as a somewhat unlikely hero, easily readable by ubiquitous smartphones and able to handle everything from ordering to loyalty data in one image.
That evolution continues as QR codes become part of the pandemic-as-endemic scenery.
After an initial scramble among merchants and restaurant operators to integrate POS systems that read QR codes — something many didn’t have handy in March 2020 — the use of QR has evolved to where it’s not just providing contactless options, but is also reducing operating costs.
Large numbers of retailers are using QR codes, from grocery stores to mass merchants, but one setting where QR is proving to be a game-changer is restaurant ordering and payment.
As found in PYMNTS’ Restaurant Readiness Index, a Paytronix collaboration, “many restaurant customers are interested in options that would make their on-site purchases faster and more convenient, with 3.1% and 2.8% saying they would spend more if they could pay in person using digital wallets and self-service kiosks, respectively.” Both utilize QR codes.
The same study found that nearly 33% of restaurant managers see expanding uses of QR codes as imperative for enhancing end-to-end dining experiences. Research also finds that 28% of top-performing restaurants offer QR payments, compared to 12% of bottom performers. Managers love QR codes because consumers now expect them, and they can also lower costs.
Recently speaking with Karen Webster, Victor Lugger, founder and CEO of restaurant payment solution provider sunday, said that QR-coded menus, tableside registering of diner credentials and fast payment via QR code improve the diner experience and lower restaurant payments costs.
He noted that an average of 60% of diners who are offered QR options opt to use them. His goal is to make restaurant payments free, starting by ditching card swipers for digital wallets. “Tomorrow, [it’ll be] wallets — and [with] wallets, payment is free,” Lugger said.
Get the study: The Restaurant Readiness Index
QR Use Cases Are Growing
Sectors from digital identity to banking are picking up on QR code utility now more than ever.
With the fraud fight at a fever pitch, PYMNTS’ Authenticated Payments Report, a LoginID collaboration, notes that QR code adoption has risen 32% at national banks, with 27% of those who already use QR codes saying they have substantially increased their use of them. For retailers, the QR issue comes down to payments choice and loyalty.
Citcon CEO Chuck Huang told PYMNTS that “the primary goal is to enable QR online and offer the consumer choice. For example, for online merchants, if they don’t include the use of online QR codes outside of the U.S., if they go to Asian or Chinese consumers without offering the QR code, they lose 80% of their audience. Even for the U.S., if a younger consumer has a QR code option to pay before they go pick up food at a restaurant, they’re going to use it.”
PYMNTS’ QR Code Payments Tracker®, a Citcon collaboration, notes that “QR codes’ booming popularity in China and elsewhere is expected to fuel the technology’s adoption worldwide during the next several years. A recent study found that at least two billion individuals around the globe are expected to leverage QR codes for payments by 2025, up from 1.5 billion last year. The total annual value of these payments is expected to exceed $2.7 trillion in 2025.”
Get the study: QR Code Payments
The benefits of QR codes are also having a positive impact on small and medium businesses (SMBs).
According to PYMNTS’ Pandenomics series report, The Digital Transformation of Main Street SMBs, “those that invested in technology to support digital transactions, including those made on websites, via app and using digital wallets, for example, are outperforming their peers.”
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