The speed at which crypto payments are processed at Pick n Pay till points is reducing time to check out, minimising queues and improving overall customer experience – all of which contribute to higher adoption rates of crypto payments by the retailer’s customers.
Deven Moodley, executive head of value-added services, financial services and mobile at Pick n Pay, said in an interview with TechCentral on Tuesday that the decision by the retail giant to offer crypto payments as part of its “many ways to pay” philosophy is giving customers who want an alternative to cash the option to facilitate digital payments in an efficient way.
“As an FMCG retailer, time at the till – even if it’s just milliseconds off a transaction – is vital. Crypto payments are super-fast, faster than tap-to-pay and even faster than the till slip prints. We don’t advocate for long queues, even though customers do sometimes have to spend a long time in a queue. So finding every mechanism to make it easier for customers at the point of sale is critical,” said Moodley.
Pick and Pay has widely supported crypto payments at its till points nationwide since February 2023. The payments are facilitated by crypto infrastructure specialist MoneyBadger, which supports a number of crypto wallets including VALR, Luno, Blink and Binance. The speed at which these payments are processed is attributable to MoneyBadger’s use of the Lightning Network, a payment protocol built on top of bitcoin’s blockchain to allow for “near-instant” transaction processing times.
Adoption by Pick n Pay customers has been rising. Crypto payments now account for around R1.4-million/month of Pick n Pay’s in-store purchases. The bulk of these transactions, around 27% in rand terms, are made in the Western Cape. Gauteng is second at 21%.
While experimentation among younger consumers, especially millennials, saw sporadic usage patterns in the retailer’s early days with crypto, usage has become more consistent, especially in the 44-and-older age group, which accounts for 30% of all crypto spending at Pick n Pay stores.
Regular purchasers
“The younger generations are happy to experiment and see what they can buy with their crypto, but when you get the older folk in, then you start seeing regular purchases – and these span from mini store runs all the way to full grocery shopping,” said Moodley.
Average spend in the early days was around R800. Moodley attributes this to a smaller cohort of early adopters making bigger purchases. The user base growing larger has brought the average down to around R422/transaction. He said the basket size shows people are using crypto payments for day-top-day spending, suggesting it is becoming a mainstream payment method. Typical uses outside of groceries include airtime and electricity purchases as well as bill payments.
Read: Crypto hits checkout counters in South Africa
Another aspect important to the user experience regarding crypto payments is the QR code scanned to facilitate the transaction. At Pick n Pay, QR codes are also used to facilitate in-app Smart Shopper loyalty points swipes, making it unnecessary for customers to carry a physical card. Moodley predicts QR codes are going to become even more important as South Africa’s instant payment rails, PayShap, grow in adoption, as they will facilitate those types of payments as well.
PayShap builder and maintainer, PayInc, has previously hinted at QR codes as the next use case to be added to PayShap to drive further adoption.
“We want to offer customers every mechanism possible to facilitate how they pay. We are seeing crypto payments in retail stores, particularly in Pick n Pay, starting to grow. It is seen as a new form of tender. Bitcoin still remains one of the biggest forms of cryptocurrencies but all the other forms are also gaining traction,” said Moodley. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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