Pick n Pay to Adopt Cryptocurrency Payment at all its Grocery Stores
Pick & Pay is expanding its cryptocurrency offering, enabling customers to use cryptocurrencies to pay for groceries at 39 of its locations countrywide. The retailer has been experimenting with cryptocurrency payments for a number of years. It stated in a statement on Tuesday that it intended to introduce the cryptocurrency service to all of its locations in the “coming months.”
This groundbreaking advancement in the cryptocurrency industry comes after the retailer’s new pilot program’s initial phase, which enabled customers to use a “trusted app” on their cellphones to pay with cryptocurrency. The business tested bitcoin for the first time five years ago when it conducted a trial in the staff canteen at its Cape Town headquarters. “It proved the concept, but the available technology at the time was too expensive for shoppers and it took too long to finalise the transaction to make it sustainable,” it said.
Pick n Pay said it tried a payment service technology in its most recent pilot that enables users to pay for groceries at checkouts with cryptocurrencies using any bitcoin lightning-enabled app, such as BlueWallet and Muun. The lightning protocol activates all transactions on the bitcoin network.
“The transaction is as easy and secure as swiping a debit or credit card. Customers scan a QR code from the app and accept the rand conversion rate on their smartphone at the time of the transaction. The service fee for each transaction is minimal, costing the customer on average 70c, and takes less than 30 seconds.”
Pick & Pay claimed that it pre-selected testers and conducted the pilot in 10 Western Cape stores over the course of five months. This includes Bitcoin Ekasi in Mossel Bay, which signed up vendors in the municipality to take bitcoin payments while also paying trainers for the nonprofit The Surfer Kids in bitcoin. The coaches and kids now have more convenient access to their earnings because the neighborhood Pick n Pay accepts bitcoin.
With the objective of implementing it across all stores in the upcoming months, Pick n Pay has expanded the pilot to a total of 29 additional outlets for consumer testing.
“While for many years crypto was something for specialists on their computers, or used by early adopters trying it out, things are changing. The Financial Sector Conduct Authority’s recent announcement paves the way for cryptocurrency as a mainstream method of payment,” the retailer said in the statement.
“Increasingly cryptocurrency is being used by those underserved by traditional banking systems, or by those wanting to pay and exchange money in a cheaper and convenient way. Many companies are responding to this by accepting bitcoin,” it added.