In the realm of payment methods, traditional card present payment has long been a familiar option for consumers. However, with the rise of QR Code Scan-to-Pay, a new contender has emerged that offers numerous advantages over its traditional counterpart.
To initiate a Scan to Pay payment, the consumer presents a payment code (generated from a payment app like an FFT eWallet) to the merchant for scanning. This payment flow can also work when the mobile phone for payment has a weak network connection.
To understand the process involved, we need to divide the “scan to pay” process into three sub-processes (with no payment password required):
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Consumer generates a QR code for payment on the mobile phone screen and presents it to the merchant.
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The merchant scans the QR code to collect the payment.
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The consumer gets the payment result.Here are the steps for generating the QR code:
Here are the steps for generating the QR code:
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The consumer opens their eWallet app to click the “make payment” button.
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The eWallet App generates a real-time unique customer identification code (UCIC) through a specific algorithm, and presents the UCIC in QR code form.
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The consumer presents the mobile phone with the screen of the QR code to the merchant.
These steps complete in seconds. Now it’s the merchant’s turn to collect the payment from consumer’s eWallet by scanning the QR code:
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The merchant tallies up all the goods that the consumer has purchased and calculates the total amount due, for example $100.00. The checkout has an order ID of TN100001.
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The merchant uses a QR code scanner or the merchant side eWallet app on their own mobile device to scan the customer’s QR code. This action captures the unique customer identification code(UCIC) encoded within the QR code.
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Once the merchant successfully scans the consumer’s QR code, the payment information including the order ID, the amount and the real-time UCIC is transmitted securely to the eWallet servers to request for payment processing.
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The eWallet server processes the payment request and verifies the consumer’s real-time UCIC, account balance or linked payment methods. If the consumer has sufficient funds or available credit, the payment is approved.
In such user-present QR mode, as the merchant can get a clear payment result for each transaction, payment error rates can be reduced.
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Payment Confirmation at the Merchant side: Once the payment is approved, the merchant’s point-of-sale system or merchant side eWallet APP receives a payment confirmation, indicating that the transaction was successful. This confirmation is displayed to the merchant, and a receipt may be generated for the consumer.
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Payment Confirmation at the consumer side: Once the payment is approved, the consumer side eWallet APP also receives a payment confirmation at the same time, indicating that the transaction was successful.
If the transaction amount is over the user’s transaction limit or other risks are detected, the consumer might be required to enter the payment password to complete the payment:
- Consumer generates a QR code for payment on the mobile phone screen and presents it to the merchant.
- The merchant scans the QR code and a checkout page is triggered to display in the consumer’s mobile phone.
- The consumer enters the password and completes the payment.
Over to you :
We have detailed how to pay using a dynamic QR code. It is dynamic because the QR code generated in the consumer ‘s mobile phone dynamically keeps refreshing. We also know the above payment flow can also work when the mobile phone for payment has a weak network connection. Do you know how the eWallet server synchronizes the real-time unique customer identification code encoded in the QR code since the QR code is dynamically generated and keeps refreshing.
