With the arrival of the new Pizza Express Paypal App, allowing app owners to pay for their food and bill via a Paypal account and an app, we ask if this new move into mobile payments will be the start of a revolution on the high street.
Pizza Express Paypal App Review
Let’s first analyse how it works, here is the advert:
Crucially the main areas that are worth noting in relation to using the app are the following:
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- Ability to book tables via your app – Useful but hardly necessary in my personal experience.
- Ability to find local restaurants – Useful in unfamiliar areas.
- Ability to pay your bill at the end using your app using your bill identification receipt number (and apply voucher codes) – Not that difficult to pay via a normal terminal or in cash but useful for receiving an amended bill total using vouchers, and you look less cheap!
- View menu – Not a bad thing and quite good if you are in a rush and want to pre-book with friends or colleagues.
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The real value for retailers:
I could not agree more with Ewan at Mobile Industry Review when he mentions that the real value for retailers is the ability to collect personal details and build an actual relationship with customers who in the past would have simply booked, visited, eaten and left, perhaps picking up a coupon or bringing an offer from another source.
Having an app builds trust and relationships:
Not only does an app build trust, i.e the person using the app trusts the company providing it and provided it is done correctly this enhances an existing closed relationship.
The real power lies in the ability to segment and market to each individual app user, this has been tough for stores like Pizza Express to do before apps as people would have had to opt into clubs and memberships, and people simply can not be bothered as the reward is not there and then usually.
Having a free app that you can use to browse menus, book tables, pay bill and redeem coupons however adds serious functionality and that is what SmartPhone users want, ways to do things quicker and easier with more of a user experience.
Game changer for the High Street?
Just like when Marks and Spencers (UK up-market food retailer) struggled to overcome a serious image problem back in the early 2000’s; there adoption (finally) of an ability to pay for your goods using a debit or credit card, was one of the main reasons that the store survived and was successfully re-branded and ultimately continues to do well today.
Making payment options more personal helps with the flow of cash inwards, it really is that simple.
And the easier you can make that transaction the better for the retailer, couple this in with an ability to market directly to individual customers who you can profile and also help the client find their way to your store if you are lost and you have something very powerful indeed.
We look forward to seeing just how many more retailers think a little more forward and start waking up to the potential revenue generation of using apps to encourage paying customers in the doors, the benefits could be truly huge long term, if implemented well!
Would you be happy to pay for good and services using your app, or would you forget to do this by and large, do you think an app for a restaurant has merit, would you use it to search for coupons and also for the restaurant itself if you were lost?
With other options for all the apps cutesy features their is however still some doubt over its mass appeal.
Anthony Munns