Edenred and Sunday combine meal vouchers and QR code payment

Employee benefits and prepaid solutions specialist Edenred has announced its partnership with Sunday, a shared QR code payment solution for restaurants. Their common goal is to democratise a tabletop payment solution in French restaurants and, above all, to offer an all-in-one, mobile-based service to optimise the payment experience in the restaurant sector.

FACTS

• Sunday is a payment solution that allows you to pay your bill by scanning a QR code on the table with your mobile phone. Originally developed by the Italian restaurant chain Big Mamma, it is taking advantage of its valuation of over 110 million euros to ensure its expansion in Europe and the United States.

• It will now be able to count on its new partner, Edenred. The customers of the world leader of the arrowed payment solutions (such as Ticket Restaurant, Ticket Mobilité, Kadéos and Télétravail Edenred) will now be able to pay their bill thanks to the solution of Sunday.

• The two new partners will now offer various digital functionalities to users of Edenred services. They will be able to

  • get their bill without having to call a waiter,

  • Settle the bill in just 10 seconds and in complete autonomy,

  • share the bill between several consumers who have the Edenred application,

  • leave a tip and pay in 100% digital mode.

KEY FIGURES

• Edenred has more than 1.5 million active Ticket Restaurant cards in France, accessible via the super app MyEdenred

• In total, more than 7 million French employees now have access to Edenred digital solutions in France (including Ticket Mobilité or Kadéos)

• Edenred has more than 50 million users in 46 countries and 2 million partner merchants

CHALLENGES

• Saving time during the lunch break: There is no specific regulatory requirement for the lunch break. Nevertheless, the Ministry of the Interior has reassessed the practices and rules that apply in this period of health crisis. It considers that the employee must have a break of at least 20 consecutive minutes for lunch, but that this break is generally around 45 minutes in practice. This is still a short time and requires optimised tools, particularly in terms of payment.

• Innovating to keep pace with user habits: As a long-standing player in meal vouchers, Edenred is no less a player in digital services. In 2016, the group launched mobile payment with Apple Pay and, in 2018, allowed its users to have their meals delivered thanks to digital payment on more than 70 partner platforms. Since 2020, the service has also allowed its customers to order directly from the Edenred interface.

• A benefit for restaurant owners: Edenred and Sunday also point out the benefit of their service for restaurant owners. According to their estimates, tips are more generous via the application (+40% on average) and the average basket of their service users is 12% higher than that of regular consumers.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Edenred published its business results at the beginning of November. The group took the opportunity to underline its good health, while its activity is marked by the exacerbation of competition from innovative players with ultra-fast growth such as Swile.

• By signing with a partner such as Sunday, Edenred is demonstrating its ability to innovate and position itself in the leading pool of innovative players in its market.