The Australian Payments Network has released QR payments standards and guidelines in the wake of Woolworths’ introduction of QR code payment facilities in its stores earlier this month.
With the arrival of QR codes in the payments market, AusPayNet said it is important for industry participants to offer consumers and merchants consistency.
AusPayNet chief executive Andy White said in a statement: “The payments industry landscape continues to evolve rapidly and it is important that in response, industry participants are able to adapt and be flexible in offering consumers payment methods.
“It is also important that consumers and merchants know when they use a QR code that it will work in the same way, every time.”
White said the appeal of QR codes was that they allow more data to be encoded in a transaction, allowing them to be linked to loyalty, identity and reconciliation applications.
AusPayNet released a standard for merchant-presented mode QR code and a guideline for merchant-presented mode short QR. The standard and the guideline are voluntary.
The aim is to ensure the Australian market has a QR system that is interoperable for payers and payees.
The standard and guideline cover security and privacy guidelines; branding guidelines; the handling of refunds, surcharging, cash withdrawals; and various templates for data, identifiers and merchant information.
On May 11, Woolworths announced that Woolworths and Big W shoppers could use a QR code to pay and collect rewards points with a single scan on their smartphones.
The new process was developed by Wpay, Woolworths’ payments division. Woolworths launched Wpay as a standalone payments business in June last year, with the thinking that its scale and capability in payments would allow it to offer services to merchants outside the group.
Woolworths claims to be the fifth largest processor of card payments in Australia, settling more than 1.3 billion transactions worth around A$50 billion.
Clients outside Woolworths include EG Australia, a chain of petrol stations and convenience stores that was owned by Woolworths until 2019, Marley Spoon and Pet Culture.
Woolworths told iTnews at the time of the launch that technology providers included Hewlett Packard, Google and Microsoft.