information separately, while collecting loyalty points at the same time. Customers can also redeem points through the platform.  Coles chief executive of e-commerce Ben Hassing believes Flypay will remove friction and is a step further for Coles in giving customers a seamless omnichannel experience. “We want to help our customers shop more easily anytime, anywhere, anyhow, and with a growing number of our customers choosing to shop with Coles Online for the convenience and great value, we want to make the checkout process simpler,” Hassing said. “We are continually looking for ways to evolve our customer offer and to meet our customer’s expectations for a leading digital experience that’s easy to use and helps them with their everyday shop. flypay delivers a market leading payments experience that enables our customers to redeem Flybuys points real time and get money off their shop.” ‘Exciting time’ Coles isn’t the only retailer investing in payments technology. Last week, Woolworths Group launched Wpay, a stand-alone payments business that offers end-to-end payment solutions to merchants outside of the group.  Woolworths is already the fifth largest processor of card payments in the country, recording more than $50 billion across more than 1.3 billion transactions annually. With a separation of Endeavour Group from Woolworths Group on the horizon, Wpay will become the payments provider to BWS and Dan Murphy’s.  Paul Monnington, managing director of Wpay, previously led the development of Woolworths Scan&Go app and also worked in financial services for large banks and software companies including NAB and Oracle. He said it’s an “exciting time in the world of payments”. “Wpay enters the sector with a strong Australian pedigree serving high volume retail brands across food and grocery, fuel, liquor, hospitality and e-commerce,” Monnington said in a statement.  “Aside from payments, we know merchants are also looking for simpler ways to integrate gifting, loyalty and direct marketing platforms to engage customers while maintaining direct relationships.” Following the release of the PayPal EOFY Sales Trends Report 2021, PayPal’s consumer shopping expert, Jessica Rix, said digital experiences are becoming the consumer expectation and that retailers can’t underestimate the importance of digital across all environments. “Covid increased the pace of consumer behaviour change. More Aussie shoppers started buying online and picking up in-store and conversely going to physical stores to view goods then making digital purchases to have delivered to their door,” she said.  “Digital has become intrinsic to both online and offline channels and we are seeing Australian consumers adapting their behaviours to seize the best of both digital and traditional sales.”  Taking on Amazon The big benefit of investment in payments technology for consumers is convenience. By removing the cumbersome steps involved in the payment process transactions are easier and faster.  For retailers it’s imperative to compete against the likes of Amazon, which set the bar high with single-click ordering, notes Jonathan Reeve, general manager – APAC at Eagle Eye. “Leading global retailers are aiming for customers to tap only once at the checkout – for payments, loyalty, subscriptions, personalised offers, personalised pricing etc,” Reeve told Inside Retail.  “This is simpler for customers but also gives retailers access to the same real-time digital marketing tools that Amazon and the e-commerce pure-plays take for granted.” In the US, retail giant Walmart introduced an app known as Walmart Pay that holds credit, debit and gift card information for customers.  After scanning items at the checkout, customers can hold their phone over the QR code on the register to pay. The app also provides access to permanent e-receipts. Similarly, supermarket chain Kroger has a mobile payment program that combines payment information with loyalty cards, promotions and digital coupons. The Kroger Pay app generates a QR code that shoppers scan at checkouts.  Kroger has also introduced a debit card under its Rewards card program that offers discounts on private label products, fuel points and more.