Shift4 Introduces Contactless QR Pay Tech

Just as eateries and other business begin to reopen after COVID-19-related closures, Shift4 Payments announced Wednesday (June 24) it is rolling out a tool that lets customers pay for meals, products and services by using their mobile devices to scan QR codes.

Shift4 Payments calls its contactless technology QR Pay and says it won’t cost existing Shift4 clients extra to add the service.

“As businesses across the country reopen, they will need to adapt to changing consumer preferences including a new focus on contactless technologies,” Shift4 Payments Chief Executive Jared Isaacman said in the announcement. “We developed QR Pay to provide a completely touchless payment experience that’s secure, safe, and convenient.”

QR code-based payments already are routine in China.

The overall contactless payment market is expected to hit $4.68 trillion by 2027, according to a recent report by Grand View Research. North America will be a leading market for QR code-based transactions, the analysts concluded, with particular growth in transportation and retail.

“The COVID-19 outbreak is expected to change the payment behavior by firms and users as the World Health Organization (WHO) has been advising consumers to avoid cash handling and switch to contactless payments,” the report noted. “Besides, governments are taking initiatives to encourage the adoption of digital payments across the respective country.”

Shift4 Payments says it processed more than 3.5 billion transactions for more than 200,000 businesses in 2019.

The company’s business model involves integrating various hardware and software products to smooth the processing of secure payments as well as the gathering of business intelligence.

Shift4 Payments, as of April 30, had 734 full-time employees: 612 in the United States, 110 in Lithuania and 10 in Canada. Based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Shift4 filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in May.

The stock closed at $33.54 on June 5. Late in the day Wednesday it was trading at $38.21.

For the year ended Dec. 31, 2019, shift reported a net loss of $58.1 million on revenue of $731.4 million. For the prior year, the company reported a net loss of $49.9 million on revenue of $560.6 million.

Competitors listed in Shift4’s IPO filing included Chase Paymentech, Elavon, Fiserv, Global Payments, Worldpay, Adyen, Lightspeed POS, Shopify and Square.