Clik2Pay is transforming the payment experience for consumers and the online transaction capabilities for online retail. Riding the rails of the Great Acceleration of eCommerce, this company has created an intuitive, quick and secure POS system that’s both consumer- and retailer-friendly.
Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada
Clik2Pay is transforming the payment experience for consumers and the online transaction capabilities for online retail. Riding the rails of the Great Acceleration of eCommerce, this company has created an intuitive, quick and secure POS system that’s both consumer- and retailer-friendly.
By leaning into Interac e-Transfer technology, the system steps away from the cumbersome and expensive card-centric payment processes that currently dominate online sales.
Today on The Voice of Retail, I sit down with Clik2Pay Founder & CEO Mike Bradley to get a close-up look at their game-changing payment process. Mike offers a walkthrough of Clik2Pay from both a retailer and consumer standpoint - explaining how the system introduces a level of ease and security to online payments that revolutionize the online shopping experience.
Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of The Voice of Retail. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss out on the latest episodes, industry news, and insights. If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a rating and review, as it really helps us grow so that we can continue getting amazing guests on the show.
I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company, and if you’re looking for more content, or want to chat follow me on LinkedIn, or visit my website meleblanc.co!
Michael LeBlanc is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus Global E-Commerce Tech Talks and The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois and the all new Conversations with CommerceNext podcast.
Last but not least, check out my new YouTube cooking show, Last Request Barbecue!
You can learn more about Michael here or on LinkedIn.
Michael LeBlanc 00:04
Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Mike LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
Clik2Pay is transforming the payment experience for consumers and the online transaction capabilities for online retail. Riding the rails of the great acceleration of e-commerce, this company has created an intuitive, quick and secure POS system, that's both consumer and retailer friendly.
Michael LeBlanc 00:25
By leaning into the Interac e-Transfer technology, the system steps away from the cumbersome and expensive card-centric payment processes that currently dominate online sales.
Today on The Voice of Retail, I sit down with the Clik2Pay Founder and CEO, Mike Bradley, to get a close-up look at their game changing payment process. Mike offers a walkthrough of Clik2Pay, both from a retail and consumer standpoint, explaining how the system introduces a level of ease and security to online payments that revolutionizes the online shopping experience.
Mike Bradley 00:54
And I think I'm going to just start by saying it's easier, you know, because it's, but let me unpack that a bit. So, you know, we're talking about the online environment for retailers and many of the things you described like card security rules, the famous PCI regulations.
Michael LeBlanc 01:13
Let's listen in now.
Mike, welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. How are you doing this afternoon?
Mike Bradley 01:18
Very good, thank you. Michael, how are you?
Michael LeBlanc 01:20
Well, fantastic. It's great to have you on the podcast. I have to say, you know, you have a great voice for podcasting. So, this is going to be an easy listening episode for our, for our listeners.
Mike Bradley 01:30
Dulcet tones and, like I say, a face for radio.
Michael LeBlanc 01:33
Exactly, you and me both. All right, well listen. Thanks for joining me, let's jump right in. Tell me about yourself, your background, it looks like you've got a, an extensive background in payment business, in the payment fields, and what you do at Clik2Pay.
Mike Bradley 01:47
Sure. Well, hey, born on the east coast in Halifax, grew up in Montreal. I've lived in Toronto for the last 30 plus years. I've been in the payments business my whole career. Starting with banks, Canadian Bankers Association, and BMO. Probably best known in the industry for leading the payments team at Visa Canada for 10 years. Launched a bunch of new products there, Visa Infinite Premium Cards, Visa Debit, Visa Prepaid Cards, and even the very early days of mobile payments.
Mike Bradley 02:21
So, always had a real passion for, you know, improving the way that Canadians pay and the way that Canadian retailers are paid. So, that, that was, kind of, my corporate career. For the last eight plus years, I've been on my own and developing Clik2Pay. So, founded the company a couple years back and working with other senior leaders from across the industry, to do just that, is continue to improve payments in Canada.
Michael LeBlanc 02:49
Now, how did you get, I mean you've had a whole career in payments. But take me back to the first click, so to speak. How did, were you always interested in payments? Or was it an opportunity came up, and then you fell in love with it? Just, you know, how do you, how did someone wind up their entire career in payments? I guess I would say, where did it, where did it all, or how did it all start?
Mike Bradley 03:06
That's an interesting question. And, you know, one I, one I don't really think back, reflect back on much myself. But I'll tell you some, at least some of the reasons why I love payments. It's, it's the thing that everyone does—
Michael LeBlanc 03:18
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 03:19
Every single day, many times a day. And people don't generally think about it too much. So, it's kind of like, you know, background noise. I like to say, people don't stay up late at night trying to figure out how they're going to pay at the grocery store.
Michael LeBlanc 03:31
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 03:31
The next day, or people don't go to the grocery store to pay, they go to the grocery store to get groceries. And yet it is such a fundamental part of the Canadian economy. I guess I'm an economist by training and, you know, anything that we can do to continue to improve the efficiency and the, the cost profile and just the customer experience of payments is—
Michael LeBlanc 03:52
Right.
Mike Bradley 03:53
You know, something that I've always just had a love for.
Michael LeBlanc 03:56
Fantastic. All right, well, let's talk about Clik2Pay, the origin story, rationale for the business, what problem you were trying to solve. Obviously, you've, you've spent a career in, in payments, so something came to you as in, boy, I think there's opportunity to reduce friction, or improve an experience both, as you say, both for retailers and, and for consumer, the scope or the scale of business. So, give me the whole outline of what is Clik2Pay and, and let's start there.
Mike Bradley 04:21
Sure. Yeah, I mean, as I described in my background, you know, I've had a career in payments, mainly focused on payment cards. And that is the reality of how the payments industry is structured, is that consumer payments for anything from the, you know, electronics retailer where you go and you buy a new PlayStation game, to ordering something from Amazon online is very, very card centric.
Mike Bradley 04:48
And that world is about to change. There's this new category of payments emerging in Canada and in other countries around the world. Bank account payments, where consumers can pay directly from their deposit account. Now, we've had a system in Canada that does bank account payments for many years. It's Interac e-Transfer, and every Canadian, I shouldn’t say every Canadian, just about every Canadian, knows how the service works, and their bank supports it, and are very comfortable with the service.
Michael LeBlanc 05:22
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 05:23
What, what we're doing is taking the Interac e-Transfer service, with its real time payments, and putting a very customer friendly, and merchant friendly, or retailer friendly, front end on it. So, you know, you think, and unfortunately, we like to say a demo is the best way to look at what we do. But maybe if I was explaining it, you know, we call it Clik2Pay because you click at, say an e-commerce checkout, there's two quick steps, you go immediately to the Interac gateway page, where you choose your bank.
Mike Bradley 05:56
And then the second step is you log into your bank, once you've chosen it, and then you pay from inside your bank. So, it's as simple as that, from a customer experience standpoint, click once, a couple of choices, choose your bank and login, and then pay securely from your own banking experience. So, you know, it is a really smooth and frictionless experience for, for retailers.
Mike Bradley 06:22
It's fast and easy. They don't need to worry about losing sales and conversion, which a lot of alternative payments can lead, because everyone's already so familiar with the Interac process. And of course, it comes with things like, you know, much lower cost than, than card payments do today. So, that was really, kind of, the genesis of it.
Michael LeBlanc 06:41
Yeah, it's pretty, and so what was it eight years, you said, you've been working in and around this idea to, kind of, bring it to life and bring it to market, yeah?
Mike Bradley 06:48
Yeah, eight years plus since leaving visa, but no, the idea itself, you know, really for the past two to three years.
Michael LeBlanc 06:56
Okay.
Mike Bradley 06:57
But it takes a long time, you know—
Michael LeBlanc 06:58
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 06:58
To build a technology platform, and, you know, the people, myself, and the people that I'm working with, you know, we've been, we've been around the industry for a long time. This is not like, you know, the, and nothing disparaging about being a 25-year-old working in your basement. But it's not that kind of FinTech, if I can put it that way.
Michael LeBlanc 07:16
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mike Bradley 07:17
So, building, building a proper platform that's going to have the, you know, scalability, and reliability, and security that Canadian retailers and consumer’s demand. Takes some time. So, that's, that's really what the few years.
Michael LeBlanc 07:32
Well, let's continue to unpack the consumer piece, because I think for our audience, my audience, which is retailers, they want to understand the benefits and the ease of use for consumers. So, as you said, it's a pretty familiar process. There's not, there's many instances where you're taken to your bank, you log in and you pay directly. Now is all, all major banks, what about credit unions. Is it a fulsome assortment, or selection? How does, how does that work?
Mike Bradley 07:56
Yeah. Great question, Michael. So, maybe taking a step back, you think about the Interac experience in the store. It's a very efficient and operationally smooth process for consumers and retailers. Right, every bank in Canada issues a debit card that works through the Interac network. And that brand means a lot to consumers in terms of ubiquity, and—
Michael LeBlanc 08:20
Trust, and yeah, all those things.
Mike Bradley 08:22
Trust, all those things. Now in-store that works great, online debit is a bit of a hodgepodge—
Michael LeBlanc 08:27
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 08:27
To be quite honest. So, we've got Interac Online’s product, which is supported by one major bank, and a bunch of credit unions, to your point. The Visa and MasterCard debit offerings are also supported by some banks, but not all. And even things like Apple Pay and Google Pay, if you look at the debit options, you know, they're supported by less than half of the cards in this country that people would expect to be able to access a checking account. So, it really is a mishmash of bank acceptance for bank payments online.
Michael LeBlanc 08:33
I’d almost describe it like a hit and miss for them, for the consumer, right. I mean, that's, that's a bit of a challenge, right?
Mike Bradley 09:08
Absolutely, yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 09:08
Maybe, maybe your bank, maybe your bank’s connected, maybe they're not. Like I, I bank with a small credit union, here in Ontario.
Mike Bradley 09:15
It is very hit and miss and, and online, especially it's much messier. And, and the beautiful thing about Clik2Pay and e-Transfer is that every major financial institution in the country is a part of e-Transfer network. The consumer expectation when you say, you know, hit and miss in the current world, becomes much less so when you know that at least 90% of customers are going to be able to use the service effectively just by clicking the Clik2Pay button and going through that same set of steps that we just described.
Michael LeBlanc 09:51
Right.
Mike Bradley 09:51
And, you know, the banking experience is different for everybody. You know, you're in the credit union where you bank, I'm at a different financial institution, but we're both equally familiar with our own financial institutions process. So, you know, once I do the click and go through the two steps, then, you know, I'm on familiar ground, because I'm inside my bank.
Mike Bradley 10:14
You know, the experience we've had is, kind of, it's generally about eight to twenty seconds to complete a transaction. And that just makes it super easy to do when you're sitting in front of your desktop computer. Or if you're on a mobile phone, you know, to just complete a transaction as a customer.
Michael LeBlanc 10:31
All right, well, let's, let's look at the other side of the coin, the important side, what's in it for the retailer. Of course, any retailer would look at the payments part, measure twice, cut once, more like measure five times, cut once, before you touch anything that has to do with payments in your site.
Michael LeBlanc 10:45
They're, they're pretty mission critical. So, let's unpack that, because there's a bunch of things that come along with traditional payments, there's fees, there's chargebacks, there's Card-Not-Present rules, there's, you know, your fees change based on which card your consumer’s using. So, there's a whole suite of things that come with that. How do, how does your value proposition compare to that?
Mike Bradley 11:08
Yeah, you know, that's a, a fantastic question. And I think I'm going to just start by saying it's easier, you know, because it's, but let me unpack that a bit. So, you know, we're talking about the online environment for retailers and many of the things you described like card security rules, the famous PCI regulations, chargebacks, you know, if a customer isn't satisfied with the quality of goods or services that, you know, they have the recourse offered via the bank.
Mike Bradley 11:42
Those just don't apply to bank account-based payments. If you think about the process I described earlier, all of the decision-making for completing the payment belongs with the consumer and the bank, or financial institution already. So, you know, if I'm in a retailer's site, and I click the Clik2Pay button, and I get routed over to my bank, I log in using the bank's security mechanisms, not Clik2Pay's security mechanism.
Mike Bradley 12:12
And I look at the purchase in my online banking, and it's a, you know, is this a purchase that I want to make. Those payments are now final, just like, when you send me an e-Transfer. Let's say miraculously, I won the hockey pool that we're both in, you know, you don't expect to be able to get that back, you know, if things don't go your way.
Michael LeBlanc 12:33
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 12:33
So, you know, it leaves the disputes where they belong, which is between the consumer and the merchant, you know, all of those features just become much more straightforward with Clik2Pay. Now, that trades off against, as you say, this is new, right. And even though e-Transfer is used by more than 15 million Canadians a month, they haven't used it in this way before. So, there is, of course, a bit of a learning curve, and—
Michael LeBlanc 13:00
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 13:00
People understanding who Clik2Pay is and, and all of that, but that, that will happen over time. Merchants will be attracted to it for its simplicity. And, and, you know, we haven't really spent much time on this yet, but it's not a small point, that it's about half the cost of credit cards, right, so.
Michael LeBlanc 13:16
Well, it's going to be, I mean, indeed, it was going to be my next question. I mean, I've got the experience of running and launching a credit card business, I own the book of business. And one of the reasons we had an in-house credit card was, was like as a credit shield. In other words—
Mike Bradley 13:28
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 13:28
The business paid for itself by not, you know, having that transaction done on a, an MC or an AmEx, or Visa cards. We called it the credit shield; you might be—
Mike Bradley 13:38
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 13:38
I'm sure you're familiar with that term. You know, there's two issues. One is there's credit card fees, which probably go our highest, you know, as Retail Council Canada often says, are some of the highest in the world, and they're variable, right? You don't always know the fee, you're going to get charged depending on the card, so, tell me about how fees work with your product.
Mike Bradley 13:57
Let's start with, kind of, the current card-based model. Because people are very aware of credit card fees. As the pandemic has driven so much business from in-store to online, it's really changed the equation for retailers. So, if you take a basket of goods, and I keep saying grocery, but let's, let's use a different example. You know, online ordering for—
Michael LeBlanc 14:20
Camping gear, electronics, anything, right.
Mike Bradley 14:22
Let's do camping, Canadian, you know, Canadian Tire, massive retailer in this country. If I go in store, you know, it's nearly half their payments, that would be debit. And I'm not going to, I don't know much about Canadian Tire's individual pricing for debit, but I would almost guarantee that it's under a nickel to make a purchase.
Mike Bradley 14:38
But you know, if I order that same set of camping gear, a couple 100 bucks online, then I'm going to be paying a, more likely, I'm going to be paying credit card than debit, because consumers are just oriented to paying credit cards online. And that $200 ticket goes from being five cents to being a couple, jeeze, not a couple bucks, three or four bucks.
Michael LeBlanc 15:02
Yeah, yeah.
Mike Bradley 15:02
So, like, say it could be 100 times more expensive to take a payment online for retailer’s post-pandemic. And the same applies to curbside pickup, you know, you used the expression Card-Not-Present earlier.
Michael LeBlanc 15:17
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 15:17
And a lot of curbside pickup transactions are completed with, either a credit card or a Visa or MasterCard debit card, that are provided in advance. And they are also extremely expensive. So, for both of those use cases, we can start to make the cost, it's never going to be quite the same low price that Interac debit is in store. But like I said, we can, we can cut credit card costs in half for most major retailers.
Michael LeBlanc 15:46
And let's talk about cybercrime, the bad guys, now on the consumer side. Consumers are protected, more or less, when they use their credit card product. In terms of someone using their credit card product. And unfortunately, the, the retailers, either because they have to put in tremendous amounts of efforts, and structures, and processes, or they get tagged themselves.
Michael LeBlanc 16:09
How, how, speak to that for a bit. So, intuitively, I think, well, you've already got the money, right? The money comes to the retailer right away. So, just talk about that specific process, and how is it, is it better than on credit cards for the retailer or expand on that for me.
Mike Bradley 16:23
The place to start is the point I made a couple minutes ago, which is, all of these transactions are approved by the consumer under the security that their bank has set for approving online payments.
Michael LeBlanc 16:37
The money's there, right. So, the money, the money's there, right?
Mike Bradley 16:40
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 16:40
It's a binary thing, either the money's in their account or not in their account for the—
Mike Bradley 16:45
Absolutely, if you're choosing our payment method, you know, you've got to be able to fund the balance out of, out of one of your accounts. I mean, one of the interesting things is, because of the way we've set it up, you can choose, you know, your bank, so if your balance at your bank isn't high enough, and you've got an account at another bank, that you get the flexibility to be able to select the bank. And then even within that bank, you can choose whichever account the bank makes—
Michael LeBlanc 17:10
Yeah right, sure.
Mike Bradley 17:10
So, lots of flexibility, but yeah, once, once the transaction has been approved by the consumer within the bank's authenticated experience, and, Michael, I mean, I'm sure you've, kind of, lived through the experience when you try using online banking on a different computer or on a different phone.
Michael LeBlanc 17:30
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 17:30
You know, it does things like check a second factor authentication by texting you a code, or it might ask you a shared secret you have between yourself and your bank. You know, mother's maiden name is the classic one, no one would recommend that today with social media being easy to foil those things.
Michael LeBlanc 17:42
The bad guys crawl, the bad, the bad guys crawl the obituaries. I was talking to an enforcement officer and that's the thing, right? I mean it, anyway—
Mike Bradley 17:56
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 17:57
Another topic about don't put your entire family tree in, don't put your entire family tree in your, in your obituary.
Mike Bradley 18:02
Bad idea, bad idea. Even things like, you know, your first pet, you know, is something—
Michael LeBlanc 18:08
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 18:08
That gets easier to troll and, and boy, security is a critical part of how—
Michael LeBlanc 18:12
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 18:12
People make payments through their bank today.
Michael LeBlanc 18:15
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 18:16
And, and that, quite honestly is, is, we think the simplicity of it. Which is, consumers already rely on their bank to keep them secure. And the bank is constant, banks generally are constantly improving those security measures. So, we're talking about a system Interac e-Transfer, that's going to do a billion transactions this year.
Michael LeBlanc 18:37
Wow, wow, wow.
Mike Bradley 18:38
It's not just mainstream, it's mass-market mainstream.
Michael LeBlanc 18:42
It's beyond main-, you know, whatever, whatever is beyond as you said, whatever is beyond mainstream. So, and when does the, when does that, the transfer happen, the settlement happens between the bank and the retailer then, in that, in that process?
Mike Bradley 18:55
Yeah, so great question. So, we call it real-time guaranteed payments, Michael. So, the retailer gets a notification back at the end of the transaction, digital notification, of course, just like you would for an authorization response from a credit card—
Michael LeBlanc 19:08
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 19:09
That says, this customer's payment is on the way, you know, like credit cards, we settle out to any commercial bank account of our customer, so the retailer's bank account, and that can take an extra day. So, today, we're settling next day, you know, next evening, any, anything that happens today, let's say, will be in the retailer's account by tomorrow. But the most important point is they get the notification, you know—
Michael LeBlanc 19:36
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 19:36
In the instant, in the moment—
Michael LeBlanc 19:38
Right.
Mike Bradley 19:38
That their funds are guaranteed.
Michael LeBlanc 19:39
Release, release the order, the order is good, and—
Mike Bradley 19:41
That's right, release the order, exactly.
Michael LeBlanc 19:42
And the money is, even though settlement happens the next day, and I guess I'm used to the words like, like, you know, open to buy is held, but basically that money is, is now gone from the consumer’s account. It is sitting somewhere in between, but next day it comes to the retailer, there's no pulling that back. Again, I'm picking on this a lot because, because I just want to be clear—
Mike Bradley 20:01
No, of course.
Michael LeBlanc 20:02
You know, not all retail, you know, a lot of retailers don't have payment specialists, right. Like the big guys, of course do, but—
Mike Bradley 20:08
100%, 100%.
Michael LeBlanc 20:08
A lot of them just, you know, really, it can be so complicated. I was talking to a small retailer, and they're just, their head's spin sometime, when you talk about this stuff. So, again, the money is out from the consumer’s account. It's basically sitting in the middle somewhere, the consumer can't phone the bank and go, I'm pulling that back, you know, to game the system, you know, product shipped, but I'm pulling the payment back.
Mike Bradley 20:27
That's right, that's right.
Michael LeBlanc 20:28
So, it's all, the settlement happens the next day. So, once again, the, the merchant gets the, the okay, the thumbs up, clear the order, this is a good order, right away, settlement happens the next day, which is not an issue, or whatever. And easy as that, is that what you, am I characterizing—
Mike Bradley 20:45
That is it, Michael, I mean, that is it. Now, now, we will, you know, make sure that nothing nefarious is happening within the system, right. So, we, on board, all of our merchants do the kinds of checks that anyone would expect out of a service like this. AML, KYC, you know, kind of credit worthiness for the merchant.
Mike Bradley 21:05
And we have committed, you know, because we are working within a financial ecosystem, you know, if a customer says, you know, I've been defrauded, and there's an option to, you know, make it right, let's say, we're going to work with merchants on that. But the rules of the game are very clear, which is that, you know, once a payment is completed in Interac, that it is completed, so.
Michael LeBlanc 21:29
Yeah, and it's a big deal for you guys to make sure that the prospective merchants who are looking at this know that you stand behind the product and, and that you actually vet the other, you know, the fellow retailers. That a bad retailer doesn't find their way in there, or a fraudulent retailer just to set up and, and do this, because that impacts your entire brand, right, and then the trust in your brand. So, you guys must spend a lot of time on vetting, make, just make sure they're, you know, legitimate, valid retailers and online retailers.
Mike Bradley 21:56
That's, that is exactly right, Michael. You know, the last thing we need is a bad actor coming in.
Michael LeBlanc 22:01
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 22:01
You know that, anytime you're making change in something as you described it, so mission critical.
Michael LeBlanc 22:06
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 22:06
You know, you’ve got to approach it very carefully, like you say. I think you said, it's not measure twice, cut once, it's measure five times, cut once.
Michael LeBlanc 22:14
That's right.
Mike Bradley 22:14
And so, we've done that measurement. It's a big change, we think it's a change very much for the positive. You know, retailers, like you say the Retail Council long had a gripe about card fees, but really the way—
Michael LeBlanc 22:27
As you would know well, as you would know well.
Mike Bradley 22:30
Yeah, of course, you know, I've, and reason why I've spent much time talking about it in my previous career. But, but, you know, the real—
Michael LeBlanc 22:40
Yeah, yeah.
Mike Bradley 22:40
Benefit to retailers comes from competition in the marketplace and having alternatives. And, you know, the, the world is changing from a world where, you know, changes to point of sale systems were complex, expensive.
Michael LeBlanc 22:56
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mike Bradley 22:57
And generally, the retailers relied on their bank, or the acquirers, the processors, I'm sure you know that group of folks, to be able to manage those changes for them. But with online payments, it's much easier to add new options. And at the end of the day, what the retailer needs to know is, you know, like you say, can I release the goods, you know, is the customer good for it. So, adding a click to—
Michael LeBlanc 23:21
And that's huge, I mean, I don't want to underestimate that, that's huge. I've been at retailers where, you know, particularly things like, you know, gift orders, right, it's like, we're going to hold it for 48 hours, because we want to hear, we want to get a body on a phone, you know, we're not going to release this because, you know, gift cards particularly, once they're gone, they're gone, right.
Michael LeBlanc 23:35
So, there was a delay and then, you know, people would go like, well, I don't want it then, you know. So, anything that impacts conversion, one way, shape, or another, is, is something to be avoided. Let's, let's spend the last couple of minutes on consumers for a bit, and consumer adoption. So, I've been hearing more and more, that younger consumers are shying away from credit cards.
Michael LeBlanc 23:55
They're looking at these kinds of, if I may call them alternative payments, because now they're, they have more options online. Before, you know, years ago, if you wanted to shop online, you needed a credit card. More and more that's not the case. Are you finding and hearing, and you must be talking to, at the consumer side, their kind of adoption? What do you expect to see over the next, over the next period, in terms of this, if I can call it the alternative payment process, for online retailers?
Mike Bradley 24:23
Well, I think you nailed it, Michael. There's, kind of, there's two groups. So, I'm going to take a step back. And so, there's two groups, there's, kind of, those that traditionally pay with debit card, and we know that debit card skews just demographically, not, not judging here. It's a, it's a mass market product—
Michael LeBlanc 24:40
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 24:41
That skews a bit more female, skews a bit more, you know, suburban and rural than, than downtown. And, and it skews a bit like, kind of, middle income as opposed to upper income. And, and so those folks have not always had a clear way to access payments from their bank account online, like we described it before, kind of a mishmash of debit solutions, or, (inaudible) I think, as you said.
Michael LeBlanc 24:53
Or even if they've got, or even if they've got like, like the, the term, I love this term, bruised credit. Like not everybody—
Mike Bradley 25:14
Yes.
Michael LeBlanc 25:14
You know whether your, I remember when I was, you know, the traditional department store credit card was given to those either with bruised credit, because the closed loop system, or you know, young students who are getting first credit. And it's, you know, it's just harder and harder to get that. So, it's almost like, well I don't need that anymore as much as I used to, right.
Mike Bradley 25:31
Another big segment is new to Canada, right.
Michael LeBlanc 25:33
Right.
Mike Bradley 25:33
Folks who have been here, or a thin file, we used to call it a Visa, you know, those, those that have just not enough data on them to be able—
Michael LeBlanc 25:39
Right.
Mike Bradley 25:40
To support payments from a, from a credit card with a decent size limit.
Michael LeBlanc 25:45
Or $100,000 in their bank, but they can't get a $500 credit, right?
Mike Bradley 25:50
Yeah, that's, that's another topic for another day. But yes, exactly. And that's, and that's a surprisingly large number of Canadians.
Michael LeBlanc 25:58
Interesting.
Mike Bradley 25:58
So, 43% of Canadians either prefer to pay from their checking account, or only pay from their checking account. So, like four in ten, more than four in ten, of a retailer's customers have already said, this is how I want to pay. So, the ability to be able to stand up a solution that works for them is, that's, that's lower cost, that is, you know, final payments, and that doesn't have the difficulties of PCI compliance around it, we think, on its own, is attractive to retailers.
Mike Bradley 26:31
I think you, you brought up a really interesting point, and compelling point, which is the, the changes that are taking place, and what people's habits are. You look at two teenagers, 14 and 16, and apart from the older one, trying to convince me to invest in crypto, which is a whole other separate podcast again.
Michael LeBlanc 26:53
Yeah.
Mike Bradley 26:53
They grew up in a world where PayPal was the norm—
Michael LeBlanc 26:57
Right.
Mike Bradley 26:57
And where they're seeing brands like PayBright, or Affirm, at the checkout, alongside PayPal or WeChat Pay and Alipay, you know, the two Chinese brands that are, that are quite popular now. So, the number of payment options, just like they live in a world where Wealthsimple, or KOHO, are valid alternatives to traditional investing, or traditional banking.
Mike Bradley 27:26
You know that, and, and we hope to take that space, in the alternative payments space, you know, with the credibility that we have together with the improvements in, in process and retailers. So, yeah, I think, we think the, the future looks bright.
Michael LeBlanc 27:43
All right, well, it is a, it's a great value proposition. So, where can the listeners, retailers go to learn more, and get in touch, and take that next step of exploring how to, how to put you into their transaction, take advantage of all the benefits you've been talking about.
Mike Bradley 27:58
Yeah, well, the hardest part is learning how to spell Clik. So, I'll just, kind of, read out the website name C-L-I-K, just skip the second C, number two, P-A-Y.com. So, C-L-I-K, two, P-A-Y.com. And, you know, you just drop us a note there and we'd love to talk to any retailer looking to adopt a method that their customers are going to like and saves time and hassle so, and cost.
Michael LeBlanc 28:29
Great. All right, I'll put that, I'll put that link in the show notes as well and, are you a LinkedIn guy, we, are you reachable on LinkedIn.
Mike Bradley 28:35
Of course, yeah, yeah. Clik2Pay is at LinkedIn, my name is Mike Bradley and hey, feel free to drop me an email mike@clik2pay.com. One of the things about being a small business is I'm, you know, not, not just the owner but, you know, the dishwasher too.
Michael LeBlanc 28:52
Listen and, and a, and a great, and a great interviewer too, so thank you for, for joining me on The Voice of Retail, it’s great discussion. I actually like talking about payments, because it's, I've got a bit of experience to it. But it's like an onion, every time you pull that layer back it gets more interesting and sometimes more complicated. So, thanks for unpacking it. It was a nice—
Mike Bradley 29:09
It's kept me busy for 30 years. That's for sure.
Michael LeBlanc 29:11
Well, congratulations on your, on your success. I wish you much continued success. And once again, thanks for joining me on The Voice of Retail podcast.
Mike Bradley 29:20
Thank you for having me, Michael. Have a great day.
Michael LeBlanc 29:22
Thanks for tuning into today's episode of The Voice of Retail. Be sure and follow the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you enjoy podcasts, so you don't miss out on the latest episodes, industry news and insights. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating review, as it really helps us grow so that we continue to get amazing guests onto the show.
Michael LeBlanc 29:40
I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E LeBlanc & Company Inc. And if you're looking for more content, or want to chat, follow me on LinkedIn, or visit my website at meleblanc.co. Until next time, stay safe. Have a great week.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
payments, retailers, interac, consumer, bank, credit card, merchant, pay, transaction, online, retail, customer, debit, bit, unpack, michael, visa, talking, transfer, business