Tea time signals payments revolution: Australia’s first wearable tech transaction

When the wearable technology revolution arrived in Australia, it chose Bendigo. More specifically, a Bendigo cafe.

Last week, chief executive of Bendigo Bank subsidiary Community Telco Australia, David Joss, bought afternoon tea with his Samsung Gear 2 smart watch.

The payment was made through a new Bendigo and Adelaide Bank mobile payment system called ‘redy’, which has a patent pending. The system, which was launched in June, allows customers to use an app on their compatible smart phone to scan a code displayed on the cashier’s Samsung tablet. While doing so, customers earn credits which they can donate to a charity of their choice – what Bendigo Bank head of Customer Lead Connections Andrew Cairns calls “the digital version of dropping some cash into a collection tin”.

According to Bendigo Bank’s executive customer voice Marnie Baker, the bank believes it’s “the first to launch a wearable payments solution that fully completes a transaction”.

“We have been able to do this because of the unique way that we have developed the redy payment solution using QR codes at the point of sale.”

At the point of sale, the wearer opens the app on their device (in this case, a watch), the merchant creates a unique QR code for the purchase and the offer is sent to their customer, who scans the code to accept the offer. According to the bank, the transaction is “highly secure” as the merchant never captures any personal information about the buyer.

Chief executive of Bendigo Bank subsidiary Community Telco Australia David Joss, who was the one to make the purchase with his Samsung Gear 2 watch, more and more wearable technologies are expected enter the market.

“Just as mobile phones are becoming more commonplace as payment devices, there is little doubt that wearable technology is the next extension of the customer’s mobility experience,” said Joss.

“Although only released for the Samsung Gear 2 at this stage, we will continue to develop for wearable technologies as they continue to enter the market.

“We have an extensive roadmap of developments that will be released through redy over time.”

Bendigo Bank has signed an agreement with Samsung to continue to develop mobile payment processes. Baker said the redy system united the bank’s community building initiatives with “cutting edge technology”.

“Our bank is built on responding to customer needs and helping its communities to prosper and here we have a device that does both by enabling customers to donate a percentage of the redy transaction fee to the charity or cause of their choosing,” said Baker.

“We are leveraging the power of aggregated micro-payments to help communities source new funding streams via a form of crowd funding.

Bendigo also offers a small, mobile EFTPOS device for business called microPay. The pocket sized card reader connects to any available network and allows business owners to make EFTPOS transactions away from their main point of business.

This article first appeared on Property Observer.