An Australia-based tech company with backing by some of the country’s biggest brands has boldly rolled out thousands of new ‘on-premise redemption’ and ‘prepaid product’ terminals in pubs.
Pubs across Australia have or will receive a welcome kit from ‘Pub Payments’, containing a plug-and-play terminal providing everything they need to begin selling a range of mobile based payments, including mobile phone credit recharges from the likes of Optus, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone, gift and loyalty cards, and products from Visa and Flexepin.
The system is completely free for vendors, who receive a commission for payments made through the terminals, which are effectively an extension of epay, the prepaid services global juggernaut. Epay already has a network into 26,000 locations in Australia and over 640,000 around the world and sees the extension under the Pub Payments brand as a great channel to captive retail customers.
The epay technology has proven attractive to consumer-focused companies such as Lion and others. The big brewer reportedly likes Pub Payments as somewhere customers can redeem codes for special offers, with their pub clients reimbursed directly at the end of the campaigns.
“You can actually use the terminals to sell all kinds of prepaid recharge payments … the pre-paid phone market alone is worth $3 billion annually,” the spokesperson for Pub Payments told PubTIC. “The customer is there in the bar with his or her mobile phone, and staff can sell these products to them and earn an extra revenue stream for the venue, and let’s face it, everyone has a mobile phone in their pocket today.”
The unannounced offer to be part of the network and ‘Terminal Welcome Pack’ delivery is a bold approach by Pub Payments, and the company says it is hoping to skip the formalities and get venues and their patrons benefiting from their terminals.
The Pub Payments Terminals allow patrons to make use of redemption codes for complimentary and discounted products, attracting them to venues, where these codes are entered by bar staff. The brand running the promotions provides incentives to the pub to cover the cost, facilitating a no-fee model for participating venues.
“Once the venue activates the Pub Payments Terminal, they can participate in promotions run by recognised beer brands, such as Tooheys and XXXX. But the key message we are trying to impart is that there is absolutely no cost to the pub.”
Responding to suggestions that ‘nothing is ever free’, the company says it benefits from commissions on the products sold, and venues benefit from foot traffic and connections with promotional beer partners.
Pub Payments reports a lot of enquiries about the welcome packs it has been sending, with good uptake in the first few days.
