Cash and credit cards took a move closer to being a thing of the past today as UK high street restaurant Pizza Express launched an iPhone app which means you can now pay for your meal with your iPhone via your PayPal account.
The are a few companies trying to converge the online-offline shopping experience through mobile payments, namely San Francisco based Square which takes credit card payments by swiping the card through an extra piece of hardware plugged into your iPhone. But the beautiful thing about the Pizza Express/PayPal app is that there are no credit cards or extra hardware involved, security is already verified through your PayPal account.
The app is an innovative move by both Pizza Express and PayPal which is a market first for the physical retail industry and also for PayPal who are bringing online payments to the UK High Street for the first time.
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The app can be used in all 370 UK restaurants across the UK and will be supported by a company-wide roll-out of free WiFi via The Cloud. Paying quickly means you can leave the restaurant when you want but you can also find a restaurant, book a table , see the menu and keep track of receipts in the My PizzaExpress section.
Cameron McLean, General Manager, Merchant Services at PayPal, said:
“Over a million UK PayPal customers have made a payment on their handset so combining our payments experience with PizzaExpress’s ground breaking app should be a perfect combination. The line between the high street and the online world is blurring, and innovative brands like PizzaExpress recognise that payment by mobile makes a great service even better.”
This is a bold move from Pizza Express and will hopefully set a good example for other high-street retailers on how to embrace the online-offline convergence through technology to increase revenue. I really do think this shows great initiative from Pizza Express but I do have to disclose that I helped work with both companies for this campaign, collaborating with Newspepper to create the video.
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