Thanks to Touch Payments, a new start-up determined to revolutionise how we shop online, Australians can now trial and purchase items from online retailers without paying a cent or providing their credit card details.
Touch Payments is Australia’s first invoice-based checkout platform, providing an alternative for the Australians out there who don’t want to share their credit card details online, or those who don’t even have a credit card.
Already available at several online retailers, Touch Payments Founder and CEO Jonas Larsson is confident that it won’t be long before their try-before-you-buy platform, unprecedented in Australian online retail, is common e-commerce practice.
How does Touch Payments work?
Simply by selecting Touch Payments at the checkout point of participating online retailers, shoppers can receive their goods with no payment or credit card details provided up front.
Instead they are invoiced for their order, giving them the ability to try before they buy, a previous restriction with online shopping.
Once their goods are shipped, shoppers have up to 16 days to make their payment (free of interest and other fees) and can do so by the payment method of their choice including BPAY, bank transfer, credit card, debit card or even with cash at Australia Post.
The new platform will help Australian online retailers reach those shoppers who were not really into the whole online shopping thing due to reasons such not being able to touch/sample the goods before they buy, being concerned with providing their payment details online or not having a credit card in the first place.
What is the story behind Touch Payments?
Below is what Larsson shared with Anthill about how Touch Payments came into existence.
When we worked for one of the world’s largest e-commerce accelerators and venture capital firms, we observed some pain points which were common across many of the ventures we worked with: stagnant conversion rates. That’s how the idea for Touch Payments started.
However, our interest in the space started earlier when we observed how difficult it was for start-ups/SMEs to get loans from traditional lenders and needed help in cash management in general. We wanted to help these start-ups.
Also, we quickly discovered that invoice-based online payment methods didn’t exist in Australia. This means less choice for consumers. In Germany, close to 50 per cent of online shoppers use invoice-based payment. Why should Aussie consumers not have that option?
More importantly, we were convinced that we could build a more convenient and simpler payment method which would enhance consumers’ online shopping experience.
We started working on the concept in April 2013. In September 2013, I was the first one to work on Touch Payments full-time. In December 2013 we tested our first beta version. I invested my own money from the start and raised a six figure investment in January 2014.
