Live Payments partners with Visa to launch Tap to Phone product for SMEs
Live Payments, one of Australia’s leading payment providers with over 11,000 merchants, have announced a new partnership with Visa to help Australian small and micro businesses, and taxi operators, accept digital payments securely and conveniently using Visa technology.
In a game-changer for small businesses and a first for taxi operators in Australia, Live Payments will employ Visa’s Tap to Phone technology to transform a merchant’s smartphone into a point-of-sale device. Participating merchants will be able to accept fast, secure payments from any contactless-enabled Visa card, device or wearable, which a customer simply taps to pay against the merchant’s smartphone or tablet.
With no additional hardware or device required, Tap to Phone is an especially exciting option for small and micro businesses that may not have the resources for full point of sale infrastructure.
Brian McGrory (pictured left), Visa’s head of merchant sales and acquiring for Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific said, “This is opening another door to the digital economy for small businesses. By making it easier to accept digital payments anywhere, anytime, Tap to Phone is creating new ways for small and micro businesses to reach customers, prevent lost sales, and support cash flow.”
Research shows consumer appetite for the technology too. Despite Tap to Phone being new to the Australian market, a YouGov study of over 1,000 consumers shows nearly half (45%) would already be likely to use the payment option if available, citing ease of use (50%), time savings (44%), security (43%) and eliminating the need to carry cash (42%) as the most popular reasons.
In a further sign there is appetite for Tap to Phone, two in three (66%) Australians reported being inconvenienced having to find an ATM to withdraw cash to pay businesses such as tradespeople or cleaners who can’t accept card payments on the spot.
McGrory added, “Given the rapid adoption of digital payments and the major role smartphones play in our day-to-day lives, we expect Tap to Phone will become an increasingly popular way to pay among Australian consumers.”
Reuven Barukh (pictured right), CEO at Live Payments, added, “This is an exciting partnership for Live Payments. Our integration of Visa’s Tap to Phone solution is a first for taxi operators and will revolutionise the way customers and small businesses make and receive payments.
Merchants across the board have had to rapidly change how they do business, and this new solution will facilitate the type of seamless, flexible and “no fuss” payment processing that people are now looking for.”
Live Payments has also integrated their Tap to Phone solution with Cybersource, Visa’s global payment and fraud management platform that provides businesses with a one-stop solution for managing payments.
