In the past week Coles (Australia) has announced it is joining forces with Beem to create an all new digital wallet for it’s customers for “ease of use” requiring the use of an app to scan a QR code off a checkout in order to pay.
Why on earth they’re doing this is anybody’s guess. This sounds similar to something Walmart (USA) has been running for some time with no support for Apple or Google or any other digital wallet besides it’s own Walmart Pay app.
At least it’s unlikely that Coles would prevent use of other digital wallets but it still feels like a step in the wrong direction.
Woolworths in Australia enabled a similar system early last year allowing customers to pay via QR code and automatically collect loyalty points etc at the same time.
Woolworths was the only Australian retailer that enabled Apple Wallet tap to collect loyalty rewards and they’ve had this for years. Coles is really lagging behind and perhaps should have sought to go in a different direction with their tech idea.
It seems unlikely that people will want to have a digital wallet for every different retailer they may use when it’s just so much easier to use Apple Pay or Google Pay at the checkout.