Lightspeed Commerce Inc., the one-stop commerce platform for merchants to simplify, scale, and create top customer experiences, launched its contactless payment solution, Lightspeed Payments, to tens of thousands of hospitality and retail clients across Australia.
Why is Lightspeed Payments a unique product?
Aussies’ payments market is fragmented, with stakeholders losing time and money due to juggling various tech vendors. Lightspeed Payments is an integrated, contactless payments processor that gives hospitality and retail business owners the ability to process customer payments from their point-of-sale, reducing double handling, errors and administration.
The launch of Lightspeed payments will help boost revenue for both small hospitality and retail businesses, as data shows Australians spend more in cashless venues. The average transaction value (ATV) of cash payments in Lightspeed hospitality venues in April 2022 was $18. For non-cash payments, such as debit cards or digital wallets, the ATV was $27.
Over the past two years, the hospitality and retail industries have experienced a major shift in consumer behaviour when shopping or dining out. Lightspeed data analysing thousands of hospitality clients shows, as of April 2022, 18% are already completely cashless, with 85% of all customer payments made via card or digital methods, such as order-ahead apps.
Victorian beer bar and bottle shop Beermash is among Lightspeed’s first customers. With only one site and two registers for payment across its retail and hospitality offering, Beermash needed a solution that offered seamless ordering and a less cumbersome admin experience.
Dayvid Clark, Co-owner at Collingwood institution Beermash commented, “Setting up Lightspeed Payments took just five minutes and was a completely seamless experience.”
“The payment processor is easy to use with the ability to take payments from customers anywhere on the premises. We have had customers and other business owners fascinated by the look of the device and impressed with the quick transaction time turnaround,” he said.
What were the executives’ thoughts on the product?
For retailers, the average transaction size for cards grew 140% from January 2021 to January 2022, with cash remaining flat in the same period. Card transactions now make up over 80% of total transactions. Gordana Redzovski, VP Retail APAC at Lightspeed Australia, said Lightspeed Payments will be a gamechanger for hospitality and retail business owners.
“The Aussie payments space has failed to put the client in the centre of the experience. We’re thrilled to expand Lightspeed’s robust payments offering into this region to meet the financial services needs of our merchants. Business owners are after a seamless experience and we are equipping our hospitality venues and retail business owners with the right tools to be successful, and provide a superior check out or payment experience to their customers.”
Jona Georgiou, General Manager for Payments and Financial Services, Lightspeed said, “The launch of Lightspeed Payments has generated tremendous traction as businesses need to keep up with changing consumer behaviours. Our system allows owners to run their businesses without having to worry about manual errors and excessive admin. This launch is a vital for us to provide the best all-in-one solution for hospitality and retail businesses.”
What is the product offering of Lightspeed payments?
Lightspeed Payments combines the two needs of every venue operation; processing orders and taking payments, into one system for a seamless ordering and less cumbersome admin experience. It enables merchants to take orders and accept payments anywhere: curbside, tableside, at the counter and mobile. Key features of Lightspeed Payments include:
-
Lightspeed Payments enables frictionless, faster processing at competitive rates: No hidden fees – transparent pricing for swipe, tap, or manual entry.
-
Manage your business in one place: With one source of data and one company to trust, hospitality operators can manage their businesses in one place with an integrated experience that manages your POS and payments.
-
Simplified set-up: Get your business’ transactions up and running quickly and painlessly.
-
Comprehensive reporting and robust analytics that interact directly with the POS: Save time and frustration, with no need to juggle reports and tools; all payments reports are at your fingertips in Lightspeed. Retain increased customer data with every swipe or tap.
-
Lightspeed Payments enables enhanced payment security backed by a global network: EMV, tokenization and end-to-end encryption.
-
Operational support with chargebacks, fraud, and customer queries.
-
Flexibility with a range of localised payment options.
The Lightspeed Payments launch follows the recent launch of Lightspeed Capital, a quick and easy financing solution to help businesses whenever they may need an influx of capital. It is available to eligible Lightspeed Payments customers. Lightspeed Payments is now available to tens of thousands of Lightspeed hospitality and retail customers within Australia.
