Marking another PayPal milestone, Hong Kong’s Pacific Coffee chain is enabling customers to pay for their morning beverages via PayPal on their iPhones. Customers can also fund their store credit card, “Perfect Cup,” with PayPal online or via a mobile device at the counters of all 106 locations of Pacific Coffee. For the first-time ever in Hong Kong, consumers can now place their order and pay for their coffee quickly and efficiently with a simple scan of a QR code on their iPhones at the store counter.
“The initiative demonstrates PayPal’s leadership position in the mCommerce market,” says Kerry Wong, PayPal Managing Director, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan. “We’re showing we’re innovators in payment technology. Our understanding of customer needs is revolutionizing mobile payments along with the retail shopping experience.”
To get started, customers simply download the free Pacific Coffee iPhone app, go into ‘My Perfect Cup Card’ and touch the ‘Buy Now’ button to purchase their mobile cards for HKD 200. Existing customers can use the ‘Login’ button to fund their existing cards. They can then use the QR-scanning function to pay for food or beverages at all Pacific Coffee locations in Hong Kong.
PayPal has supported the rollout with a variety of promotional programs, including an in-store demo with customers and media and an advertising campaign that hit PC Market, a local IT magazine, and Dolce Vita, a popular lifestyle TV show. They also launched a viral mobile game -- The Battle of the Pacific Coffee – which has already been played by 20,000 people.
“Feedback has been very positive,” says Kerry. “Bloggers and journalists see this product as heralding further innovations in mobile payment technology, viewing PayPal as a market leader.”
To drive adoption, the PayPal team has been working closely with the merchant to promote the app to more consumers.
“Hong Kong people love convenience,” says Kerry, “and many of the customers, reporters and bloggers already had PayPal accounts, so they were keen to try the app. Giving them a simple, secure method to pay for purchases on their mobiles is far more efficient than paying with cash. We’re helping to create a cashless society.”