Bitcoin Tested at South Africa’s Grocery Retailer Pick n Pay

Cape Town-based FinTech business Electrum has enabled Pick n Pay to accept Bitcoin payments in-store. 

The company said in a statement that this is “a world first for a major grocery retailer”.

“As a result of this groundbreaking innovation project, for a limited time customers at Pick n Pay’s campus store have been able to use the Bitcoin cryptocurrency to purchase groceries and services,” the company said.

It added that the checkout process is as simple as scanning a QR code using a Bitcoin wallet app on the customer’s smartphone.

The Bitcoin infrastructure for the project was provided by Luno, a global Bitcoin company, active in Southeast Asia and Africa, and with an office in Cape Town.

Luno enables South African consumers to easily buy, sell, send and spend Bitcoin.

“At Pick n Pay one of our key values is to embrace change and encourage innovation and leadership. To deliver on that promise we are constantly working with our technology partners to find ways in which we can deliver valuable, innovative services to our customers,” Jason Peisl, IS Executive at Pick n Pay, said in a statement.

“Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin are still relatively new payment concepts, yet we have been able to effectively demonstrate how we are able to accept such alternative payments.“

Electrum provided the cloud-based enterprise payments platform used for the transactions.

“We’ve worked closely with PnP for several years as a key technology provider. Our mission is to support innovative enterprises like Pick n Pay, and together we use the advanced Electrum software-as-a-service technology to move quickly on new opportunities, whilst at the same time delivering the best possible shopping experience,” Electrum MD Dave Glass said in a statement.

Major retailers and financial institutions use electrum’s technology to accept payments, process loyalty transactions and provide value-added services. Its customers include two out of Africa’s top three retailers, South Africa’s fastest growing retail bank, the largest drugstore chain in South Africa, and the most cost-effective money transfer company in South Africa.

Electrum’s cloud-based transaction platform processes billions of transactions per annum.