While eating dinner out is commonly a pleasant activity—there are some exceptions, but these are best left unconsidered—some parts of it are less so.
The wait for the check can throw a crimp in the evening, as even those who plan ahead by asking for the check when the food is served will still have to wait for it to come. PaidEasy has a new idea, and it might be just what it needs to break into an increasingly crowded mobile payments market.
With PaidEasy—recently launched in the Apple App Store—users get access to a faster way to pay the check at dinner. The company reports having over 150 merchants join up during its beta testing period, though this appears mainly limited to restaurants throughout New York City.
A quick look at PaidEasy’s site shows locations broken down by borough, with a slate in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. However, there’s no shortage of breeds here, as everything from wine bars like Miusa in Brooklyn to the M.Wells steakhouse in Queens is on hand.
Backed up by $2 million of investment from Ivor Ichikowitz, PaidEasy wants a slice of the hospitality industry, and is putting its main focus on restaurants. Restaurants, meanwhile, get access to a tool that’s shockingly conversant with iBeacon systems, starting a check automatically when the user walks in the door.
The check then syncs up directly with the merchant’s point of sale system, and gives wait staff the ability to add items rapidly. Customers can then pay from their own PaidEasy interface, and without having to wait for the wait staff to fetch a credit card, run it to a central terminal and bring it back.
That’s not to say it wouldn’t still be an option, as would paying with cash, but PaidEasy users—and those restaurants that accept it—can trim down the wait accordingly. Plus, users get other options, like the ability to split the bill among other users, or just leave outright knowing that the bill will automatically be paid, complete with tip, in 45 minutes.
Customers even get the ability to leave feedback that the restaurant in question can address directly, making for a better overall experience. PaidEasy offers a mobile payment platform that is therefore highly specialized and extremely versatile, offering users plenty of options within a comparatively narrow space.
Even security concerns are addressed here, as the users’ credit cards are encrypted directly in the app itself. Payment details thus become tokenized, never shared with the merchant, and the payment conducted behind the scenes.
It’s not hard to see the value here; by focusing so closely on hospitality industry points, PaidEasy has made itself a viable alternative to more generalized mobile payment systems like Apple Pay. Those payment systems can be used most anywhere, but PaidEasy has focused and is delivering a great new option.
Customers can pay for a meal and be on their way more quickly—they don’t even have to wait around as the check can be automatically paid after 45 minutes of no contact—and restaurants get back valuable table space more rapidly with less contact from the wait staff. It’s a win-win proposition; better experience for the customers, better experience for the restaurant.
While not every restaurant may get behind this—and it’s hard to imagine why they wouldn’t—enough likely will that PaidEasy might prove a powerhouse in restaurant dining.