Japanese App Based Consumer Payments: What we would like to see.

What we would like to see from Japanese App Based Consumer Payment Systems

We recently published a piece on a List of Japanese App Based Consumer Payment Systems. We thought it would be good to write about what’s good about the apps and what could be improved.

PayPay:

Good:

1. For retailers, the upfront cost of setting up PayPay is free (for a few years).

2. For retailers, Alipay is integrated to the PayPay payment rail. Alipay consumers can pay by scanning the PayPay QR code of the retailer.

3. For consumers, retailers like Bic Camera, Family Mart, Mini Stop who are well known in Japan have been on boarded.

Improvements:

1. KISS: There are two menus, a hamburger bar on the top left hand side and tab bar (bottom navigation). Thinking of the consumer and the reach with one hand having the tab bar at the bottom might make it easier. In the UK: Monzo, Barclays, HSBC, Revolut, Amex have the tab bar and it’s very simple.

2. Help: The help is a website (https://support.pay2.jp) with information. For the future it would be worth putting in a search and chat functionality. Search is useful because consumers can look for information, rather than read all the different subjects on the website and be disappointed when the subject and the information is different. Chat helps to gain trust of the consumers. In the UK: Monzo, Revolut, Starling, Barclays, Lloyds have the functionality.

3. User Experience x2. There are two different flows users can use to get to the payment functionality. On the home screen there is a Code Payment Icon （コード支払い)on the tab bar, if you click on PayPay Balance Payment (PayPay残高で支払う) they both show the same screen for Payment (お支払い). Workflow for My Code (マイコード) is also doubled. Thinking about consumers, the app reduce the flows to get to the same page.

Origami Pay:

Good:

1. For consumers discount coupons are readily available .

2. Card.io is used to scan Credit Cards.

3. FAQ can be searched (Zendesk) & Contact Us is available (email to cs-support@origami.co).

Improvements:

1. Coupon Opt-In method. It would be better if the opt-in method was only once. At the moment Coupons are pushed to users (through notification) and then opted in by the users. The coupon has to be selected again at the point of sale which means upon payment the coupon could be missed if consumers think they have already opted-in to the coupon. Amex in the UK has Offers which is saved to card and only requires opt-in once.

2. Payment Information The app shows offers. It should show the total amount spent and in which category. Monzo, Starling, Revolut are good examples.

3. Marketplace Origami has a marketplace which is nice. It’s currently an e-commerce marketplace. It would be nicer if the marketplace had insurances, credit, wealth, accounting, savings advice for special days (Valentines, White Day, Christmas). It would be great to hear your thoughts.

Next story will be Rakuten Pay & Line Pay.