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when shopping at convenience stores and snack shops, you only need to unlock your phone and “touch” it to complete the payment at the member price, and the member points can also be accumulated to the account at the same time; if you want to buy a bottle of drink at the vending machine, you only need to unlock your phone and “touch” it to open the cabinet door, and the process has been simplified from 6 steps to 2 steps; when dining with friends and family in a restaurant, you no longer need to scan when ordering, just unlock your phone and “touch” it, and the menu will automatically appear on the phone screen; if your phone is out of power and you need to borrow a power bank, you only need to unlock your phone and “touch” it, and the power bank will automatically pop up, and you no longer need to scan the code, bind your phone number, pay a deposit, and other tedious steps; in the future, you can even check in at a hotel and quickly find a seat for watching a game in a stadium with 10,000 people just by unlocking your phone and “touch” it...

in july this year, alipay announced the upgrade of the barcode payment experience and launched a new payment method "touch and go". at the 2024 inclusion·the bund conference held recently, alipay revealed that "touch and go" has been online for two months and has now covered more than 50 cities including shanghai, chengdu, wuhan, changsha, hangzhou, qingdao, etc., and the promotion speed is 6 times that of face payment in the same period. at the same time, this innovative measure that brings consumers a simpler, more convenient and novel payment experience has been popular among young users. nearly 70% of "touch and go" users are born after 1995; foreign friends also love to use this function. in august, the number of payments made by foreigners visiting china using "touch and go" increased by 4 times month-on-month. in addition, the circle of friends of "touch and go" is also expanding. from mobile phone manufacturers and service provider partners to supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants, and retail head brands such as tea and coffee, baked snacks, clothing and beauty, home appliances 3c, and jewelry are joining one after another.

new payment methods release new consumption potential

"a major reason why consumers come to convenience stores is to buy the products they need in a short time. therefore, saving time is the greatest value of convenience stores." yu renhong, vp of integrated marketing for ting hsin group's convenience restaurant chain business, said at the bund conference that "touch and go" saves consumers time scanning qr codes with their mobile phones, brings a more convenient consumer experience, and thus releases consumer potential.

at the beginning of august, familymart, a convenience store chain, piloted the installation of alipay "touch and go" devices in multiple stores, which have been gradually extended to 2,600 stores across the country within the month. at the same time, it launched the "touch and go" member payment function at the end of august. data shows that in a short period of time, the "touch and go" member payment member transaction orders, member transaction amounts, and the number of new members in the pilot stores have all shown double-digit growth, with member orders increasing by 40%.

in fact, for all convenience stores, there have always been three pain points in membership operations in offline store scenarios. the first is that it is difficult to recruit members. customers need to report their mobile phone numbers, find membership codes, and fill in membership information, which is a cumbersome process. the second is that it is difficult to increase member activity. store clerks need to ask customers whether they are members, whether they want to join, and whether they need points. third, member information is not fully utilized. convenience stores need to have a more accurate understanding of members' consumption needs to carry out tiered operations and formulate effective marketing strategies.

"through cooperation with alipay's 'touch', consumers do not need to look for mini-programs or scan codes to log in and fill in information. they only need to unlock their phones and touch the payment device to complete payment, membership, points, and instant discounts in one step. this has become one of the important tools for familymart membership operations and may become a standard feature of the convenience store industry in the future." you renhong revealed that nearly 3,000 familymart stores in mainland china will be fully connected to "touch". at the same time, familymart will also use the digital capabilities of the "touch" brand joint venture to provide members with super value discounts in conjunction with platforms, suntory and other fast-moving consumer goods brands, which will not only promote product sales but also increase member stickiness, achieving a win-win situation for all parties.

not only familymart, but also juewei foods, a leading company in marinated snacks, recently announced that more than 10,000 stores across the country will launch "touch". when using this service, consumers can not only realize membership points simultaneously, but also interact with juewei duck neck's ip "little fire duck" on the "touch" device screen. "consumers' waiting time is our best service time." juewei group's chief digital growth officer chen pengfei said that "touch" helps brands to achieve the ultimate consumer experience by reshaping payment methods, while creating more marketing opportunities. data shows that in just half a month, juewei has increased its efficiency in attracting new members by 3.5 times and its paid sales from members by 4.7 times with the help of "touch".

ecosystem co-creation is accelerating the creation of new business opportunities

"'touch' combines the three advantages of new experience, new business and new technology - new experience connects young people, digitalization brings new business opportunities, and new technology upgrades new industrial opportunities." han xinyi, president and chief financial officer of ant group, said that "touch" as a new user interaction and new scene entrance is becoming a consensus in the industry, and all parties are also working together to accelerate the construction of the "touch" ecosystem.

"'tap' is the next generation of mobile interaction, which will bring users a variety of surprising experiences." sun ruinan, director of standard industry planning of huawei's terminal bg, said at the bund conference that all huawei's nfc-enabled mobile phones currently support alipay's "tap" function. in august, huawei's top offline stores have implemented the "tap" service, and in november it will cover stores nationwide. "huawei will also work closely with alipay to continuously polish and innovate the delivery experience based on near-field sensing and ai fusion technologies, and further expand new payment experiences in shopping, travel, medical care and other scenarios."

"'tap and pay' does not require searching, asking or interrupting. users do not need to interrupt other things they are doing on their phones to complete the payment process quickly, and the experience is very smooth." liu dehuang, director of oppo coloros communication software r&d, also said that oppo and oneplus have currently listed "tap and pay" as one of the factory standards for new phones.

"young people decide the future of business. 'touch' has a natural experience for the young generation and is the best entry point for merchants to connect to business opportunities in the next 20 years." li jiajia, vice president of ant group's alipay business group, said that in order to open more imagination space for "touch", alipay has launched more than 50 new "touch" + x industry solutions through co-creation with ecological partners, including opening smart containers, ordering food, borrowing and returning power banks, ip marketing interaction, etc., to continuously enrich new consumption scenarios and help merchants with digital operations.

chao hua, chief technology officer of beijing ubox online, said that new technologies drive industrial iterations, and unmanned self-service industries based on "touch and go", including shared bicycles, self-service laundry, self-service charging piles, express lockers, etc., are worth "doing again". in his opinion, as far as smart containers are concerned, scanning codes to open doors has achieved full coverage, but it requires 6 steps and takes at least 15 seconds; although face recognition to open doors has been simplified to two steps and only takes a few seconds, it only covers 30% of the scenarios due to its high cost. "with 'touch and go', consumers only need to bring their nfc-enabled mobile phones close to the designated area of ​​the container to open the door instantly, and the cost is lower than face recognition containers that require a screen."

it is reported that ubo smart containers equipped with alipay's "touch and go" function have been deployed in many cities including shanghai, hangzhou, chengdu, wuhan, shenzhen, fuzhou, and zhuzhou, covering many scenarios such as schools, office buildings, hospitals, hotels, and stadiums. without any activity guidance, the natural selection rate of users is as high as 91.37%. in offline user experience research, young people are particularly enthusiastic about this new technology experience, and there are even queues in campus scenarios.

"'tap and pay' not only improves the consumer experience, but also ensures consumer safety." chao hua said that "tap and pay" does not store or transmit payment information through mobile phones, and uses advanced encryption processing technology, which not only ensures the safety and reliability of the transaction process, but also protects user privacy well.

in the catering scene, "touch and go" is also creating new consumer experiences and bringing new business opportunities. "we have served millions of catering merchants, especially the light fast food format. it is difficult to make money if the daily turnover rate is less than 3 times. in the process of high-frequency turnover, the fading and edge of the qr code greatly affect the consumer experience. at the same time, when dining with friends, colleagues, and customers, scanning the code to order food is also easy to distract, which will interrupt the conversation. in addition, in a relatively dim dining scene, it is more difficult to focus and the code cannot be scanned. the emergence of "touch and go" solves these pain points." shen peng, co-founder of shouzhan technology, said that the ordering process is smoother. shouzhan is cooperating with alipay to continuously optimize products and experiences, enabling catering merchants to improve their business quality.

wan haoji, partner of matrix partners, believes that "tap and pay" is not only a new payment method, but also a technology-driven evolution in seconds. it is also very easy to use, which not only improves the consumer experience, but also brings about interactive innovations that will have an impact on all walks of life. with the integration of data, there will be unlimited imagination and possibilities in the future.

□ our reporter li zichen