Coding the future of payments: GCash breaches 50k QR Merchant Mark

The use of QR for mobile digital payments is very popular in various emerging and developed economies. In China, for example, mobile digital payments account for over half of the country’s total transaction volumes.

In the Philippines, the use of the said technology is still in its nascent stage, and has yet to see an explosion in usage today.

Despite this GCash, operated by Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt), sees the value of setting up as many QR-enabled merchants as possible, as it believes that the future of mobile digital payments lies on innovative technologies.

“QR payments provide security and convenience to both merchants and their customers. Our thrust as a mobile wallet is to acquire as many merchant partners as possible — even micro-entrepreneurs such as taho vendors — to future-proof us from the expected boom in usage,” said JM Aujero, Vice President for Merchant Solutions.

Already, GCash has breached the 50,000 merchant mark in the first quarter of 2019, a huge milestone for the company that introduced this technology first in the Philippines in 2017.

“We want to be as pervasive as our partner Ant Financial in China. QR is the future of payments, and we are committed to lead in this arena here in the Philippines,” he said.

The QR technology of GCash is far reaching, spanning from Luzon to Visayas and down to Mindanao, including popular tourist destination Boracay.

This particular technology is empowering micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to adopt into the digital arena. Aside from giving them access to millions of customers, the QR payments solution of GCash allows merchants to enjoy auto-sweeping of their daily transactions into their account.

It likewise provides a better performance evaluation of the business, as the system provides for QR transaction reports, which allows enterprises to study and analyze their transactions real time. Cash handling issues are also addressed through the QR payments system.

GCash offers merchants no set up fees, a huge customer base, lower rates than most debit and credit cards, a chance for increased marketing, and access to periodic reports to oversee their business performance.

“Merchants and social sellers can leverage on the ubiquity of GCash in the Philippines, as well as benefit from this simple, cost-effective, and secure alternative to cash,” he said.

GCash is embarking on a battle against cash to capture more users this year, and the need to increase the number of merchants in the GCash platform only continues to be more pronounced.

The GCash QR payments solution, he explained, is supportive of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ goal of reducing cash payments and increasing the share of non-cash transactions to 20 percent of the total volume by 2020.

“Our aggressive stance in fighting for more QR-enabled merchants stems from the fact that everyday, more and more GCash users onboard the platform. Use cases for QR payments also continue to sprout,” he said.

“With Ant Financial as our partner, we are well-equipped to deliver the best QR experience in the Philippines. Ant Financial will also help us in strengthening our hold while massively scaling up our QR reach in the country,” he said.