Central Pattana Plc (CPN), the SET-listed property and retail developer under Central Group, has teamed up with six leading banks to roll out QR code payment at all Central shopping complexes this month.
Chief operating officer Pakorn Partanapat said the new payment service will appeal to younger customers who expect everything to be managed by digital systems.
From the first quarter of 2018 onwards, CPN and its partner banks -- Bangkok Bank, Bank of Ayudhya, the Government Savings Bank, Kasikornbank, Krungthai Bank and Siam Commercial Bank -- will start to install QR code payment readers in targeted stores at CPN shopping malls nationwide.
In the first phase, CPN will focus on small shops and entrepreneurs, including 822 fashion brands, 805 IT and electronics brands, over 1,500 kiosk-type shops, miscellaneous and smaller tenants, 800 restaurants in its "Food Park" at 32 shopping malls, and at many leading brands including Giordano, Guy LaRoche, Swatch, Havaianas, Kyo Roll En, Simply W, Mezzo Coffee, Sfree, Doitung, Poli-Chem Car Wash, The Rink Ice Area and Pororo Aquapark Bangkok. The company aims to install QR code payment readers at 6,000 shops of varying sizes by next year.
Mr Pakorn said the effort will attract 10% more customer traffic to Central's shopping centres this year.
"The retail industry has to adapt to not only digital trade platforms but also payment methods as it moves to being fully digitised, with innovative methods like QR codes. The cooperation with major banks will fully drive Thailand toward a cashless society," he said.
Expanding the use of QR code payments to CPN's major partners and anchor stores will make shopping more convenient for both consumers and shop operators, giving the latter the potential to expand their business easily because of the data it can gather working with banks, said Mr Pakorn.
"QR code payment is expected to further drive retail market growth by 10-20%. For CPN, we expect our customer traffic at every Central shopping centre to increase by at least 10%," he said.
Ahead of CPN, several local retailers already provide QR code payment in response to the government's much-touted Thailand 4.0 policy and the growing number of foreign tourists.
Charoen Pokphand Group has joined hands with Alibaba Group to provide e-payment at 7-Eleven convenience stores, while Central Group is working with its partner JD.Com.
Last year, the Mall Group announced a partnership with SCB for QR code payment and over 2,000 QR code readers have been installed at its retail complexes nationwide. More QR code readers will be installed at shopping complexes under The Mall Group this year.
QR code payment is proliferating not only among retailers but also grocery stores at petrol stations.
Since December, Bangchak Retail Co, the operator of Bangchak's non-oil segment, has offered QR payments at 70 of its Spar convenience stores and Intanin coffee chains nationwide, and plans to roll out more by the middle of this year.
Shell Company of Thailand is furthering the government's national e-payment strategy by joining with SCB to provide cashless payment services at petrol stations, convenience stores and coffee shops.
The QR code payment system was made available early this month at the Shell Lert Trakarn station, opposite SCB's head office on Ratchayothin Road.
This is the third country where Shell is offering the payment service, following Britain and the Netherlands.
The central bank reported the number of mobile banking payment users totalled 26 million accounts in the first half of last year, projecting that figure will rise to 30 million in 2018.
