SumUp launches its Magic Pay to split notes

In the middle of the summer, FinTech SumUp, which specialises in mobile payment for small businesses, took advantage of its good health to offer a new service to its British users. This takes the form of a mobile payment solution specially adapted to restaurant bills and incorporating a practical, albeit familiar, feature for sharing expenses with friends.

FACTS

• SumUp presented Magic Pay, its new mobile payment service aimed at end customers of restaurants and hospitality professionals. It is based on a QR Code payment solution.

• Magic Pay allows each guest seated at a table to scan a QR Code at the end of the meal. Each guest can then access the table's bill directly on their smartphone.

• More than just displaying the bill, the service allows you to :

• pay directly from your mobile, using a card, Apple or Google Pay,

• divide the bill among the guests,

• pay an additional tip.

• Receipts are then sent by e-mail.

• The solution does not require the installation of an application but simply scans a QR code from its smartphone.

CHALLENGES

• An efficient mixed offer: With Magic Pay, SumUp presents a payment solution combining the best of the table payment and bill sharing offers. After a three-month test phase during which over 100 restaurants in the UK tested Magic Pay, SumUp found that :

  • almost half of customers chose the QR code payment method,

  • tips increased by an average of 38%,

  • waiters spent about 12 minutes less per table.

• Adapting to new needs: SumUp underlines its ambition to offer an affinity payment service, but above all, to meet the new needs of hotel professionals in this post-Covid period. Its new solution is also particularly adapted to new, more digital uses.

MARKET PERSPECTIVE

• Services for sharing bills and paying independently in restaurants have multiplied in recent years. Their democratization has even accelerated following the pandemic in order to meet new requirements in terms of limiting contact between the staff of living places and their customers.

• SumUp will thus have to compete with various players already established with their own solutions, such as Sunday (which offers a very similar product) or a less expected player such as the web giant Facebook.