Google Pay has arrived in Portugal. The news was long overdue, but its use will not be widespread. The introduction of the Google Pay payment service will be just one more feature that customers of personal finance applications will have at their disposal.
In practical terms, this means that although the Google Pay app is not available in Portugal, customers of these participating banks will be able to use Google Pay for their online purchases and in any physical shops where Google Pay is available. contactless payments with Visa and Mastercard are accepted.
Google Pay: how does it work?
However, before doing so, consumers must add a card to Google Pay. The process is simple. All they have to do is access their bank's app and click on "Add to Google Pay". Once the integration process is complete, users can immediately start making payments with their smartphone.
The entry into the Portuguese market, albeit half-heartedly, of this payment service focused on users of the Android operating system has a very clear objective: to provide consumers with a simple, fast, convenient and secure payment experience.
This objective is not unreasonable. The growing use of contactless technology by consumers when paying for their purchases and services (the contactless already accounts for 34% of all payments in Portugal(REDUNIQ Insights data) and the digitisation of the most varied areas of society, in particular the rise of the e-commerceopened the way for the development of payment solutions increasingly adapted to these new Portuguese consumer trends.
Dematerialisation of payments in traditional commerce
The advent of contactless payments or online payments such as Google Pay are proof that the dematerialisation of payments is here to stay. This requires merchants to keep up with consumers technologically and offer them payment methods that are compatible with this trend.
This is what REDUNIQ ends up doing by offering solutions for the acceptance of contactless payments in Retail traditional through its TPA Contactless Android REDUNIQ Smart or, in the case of online payments in e-commerce, from REDUNIQ@Payments or the "Payment by MB reference".
Your entire business in one terminal
Designed with this new paradigm in mind, the REDUNIQ Smart is an innovative contactless terminal that allows merchants to capitalise not only on the introduction of Google Pay functionality in the Portuguese market, but also to streamline the management of their own business by giving them the opportunity to develop and integrate apps into the POS. All this from a single terminal.
Fully mobile and adaptable, this Android payment terminal in addition to offering consumers a more complete shopping experience by allowing them to browse the products or services available and make the contactless card paymentThis is particularly valuable for traders, as it allows them to manage their back office, purchasing and supplier systems online and in real time, or to have access to apps that allow them to monitor and manage their business.
Differentiated payments on e-commerce platforms
As we've mentioned, Google Pay and similar services don't just feature prominently in face-to-face payments. With the boom in e-commerce and online shopping, consumers see these "virtual wallets" as the ideal solution for finalising their digital transactions.
This means that, like traditional traders, those who make distance selling through the Internet, try to guarantee the offer of payment methods that take into account the needs and demands of the contemporary customer.
One of these requirements is payment by ATM reference. This is the preferred solution of around 80% of Portuguese consumers who buy online and, as such, its provision by the merchant becomes almost an "obligation".
It is with the aim of helping those who sell remotely that the Payment for Services, which allows the trader to generate Multibanco referencesor issue payments by MB Way easily and automatically.
If you sell online, you can choose to integrate this payment method into your website, or if you don't have an online shop, such as those who sell through social media marketplaces, you can use this feature. Payment for Services gives you the possibility to accept payments, using an entity, reference through the REDUNIQ portal.
In addition to this new feature, online businesses can also take advantage of REDUNIQ@Payments. Aimed at merchants who do not have an online shop and who are not orientated towards the sale of products in bulk, this solution allows them to acceptance of card paymentsMB Way, e-mail, SMS or WhatsApp in a simple, practical and safe way.
The process is simple. This solution provides a platform where the merchant creates a payment link that can be sent to the customer by email, SMS or WhatsApp. The customer receives the link, clicks, and goes to a secure REDUNIQ page which guarantees that the merchant does not have access to the card details at any stage of the payment.
Once payment has been made, the trader will be notified and can then proceed to dispatch the product or fulfil the service.
