iDEAL QR — a purchase is one scan away

You may already have heard of — and seen — QR codes. They’re those boxes of black and white squares that can be found on anything from food packaging to flyers & billboards.

Like a barcode, a QR code stores information that can be read by a device. Unlike a barcode, you don’t need a special scanner to read it — just your smartphone’s camera. It’s often used in print as an easy way to open a web link (no one wants to type www.youtube.com/watch?v=of4oAuLg-ks). The ease of use has made QR codes ripe for all sorts of applications, and the payment world has cottoned onto their potential.

I’ve just found one on the inside of my coat.

With iDEAL QR (developed by Currence, the company behind iDEAL), you pay by scanning an iDEAL QR code with your smartphone. Webshops can offer it as an extra payment option. The customer scans the QR code that appears on screen.

iDEAL QR has already been adopted by the hospitality industry. Restaurants and cafés print iDEAL QR codes on their receipts and invoices. Another useful application is charity collection. With an iDEAL QR code on a collection box, people who don’t carry cash can donate anyway.

Pay for lunch by simply scanning the iDEAL QR code with your phone’s camera.

To offer iDEAL QR as a payment method, you need to be able to create iDEAL QR codes and process iDEAL payments. Luckily, there are payment service providers who can help you here, like — you guessed it — Ginger Payments. Implementation is easy and fast with Ginger’s API, and it works with pretty much every system.

From the customer’s point of view, all they need to do is scan the QR code with the iDEAL app. The payment details appear on screen and the customer presses ‘pay’. This takes them to their mobile banking app, where they complete the payment. That’s it. The banks are working on incorporating iDEAL QR code scanning into their mobile banking apps, which will make the process that bit smoother (one app, instead of two).

What iDEAL QR looks like for your customers.

The big advantage of iDEAL QR is that it is easy for customers: all they need to do to initiate a payment is scan a QR code. No more carrying around plastics. And it’s safe, because iDEAL QR codes can only be scanned in the app (available for Android and iPhone/iPad), and the app can only scan authentic ones. The good news is that generating iDEAL QR codes in Ginger Payments won’t cost you any more than a regular iDEAL transaction. Contact us to implement iDEAL QR in your system or just to bat around ideas on how to make it work for you. We’re all ears.

For those new to Ginger Payments, we’re running a modular payment platform to make payment integration easier and more flexible. Come check us out.