Woolworths Group has taken the next step in its evolution into a retail ecosystem with the launch of its inhouse payment processing platform, Wpay, as a stand-alone payments business.
Wpay will draw on Woolworths’ national scale and capability in payments to offer end-to-end payment solutions to merchants outside of the group.
Woolworths is the fifth largest processor of card payments in Australia settling an annual value of more than $50 billion across more than 1.3 billion transactions.
The proposed separation of Endeavour Group from Woolworths Group will see Wpay become the payments provider to BWS and Dan Murphy’s. WPay is already the payments provider to EG Australia.
Woolworths Group CEO, Brad Banducci said: “As Australia and New Zealand’s largest retailer, we’ve been investing in leading-edge payment capabilities to service our retail businesses for many years.
“We believe there is value in extending the benefits of the investments we’ve made in our payments platform to other merchants who may not have the scale to build it themselves.
“Payments are an increasingly important part of the shopping experience both in-store and online and we bring unique expertise to this space as retailers.
“We’ll continue to invest in our platform to unlock the best possible experience for our stores and merchant partners.”
Wpay will offer Australian merchants a comprehensive payments and commerce platform, including:
• Integrated in-store and digital payments, supporting traditional card payments, digital wallets and alternative payment methods, optimised for use in Australia.
• Payment services including transaction processing at scale, rapid funds settlement and simple reconciliation, fraud management, detailed reporting and merchant analytics; and
• Gift card program management including sale, redemption and distribution partnerships.
Paul Monnington – currently Woolworths General Manager of Fintech – has been appointed the Managing Director of Wpay.
Monnington has been leading financial services at Woolworths for several years and led the development of the innovative Scan&Go app. Prior to joining Woolworths, he worked extensively in financial services for large banks and software companies including NAB and Oracle. He also consulted to the financial services sector with Deloitte and PwC.
“It’s an exciting time in the world of payments with new technology driving better experiences for consumers. Wpay enters the sector with a strong Australian pedigree serving high volume retail brands across food and grocery, fuel, liquor, hospitality and e-commerce,” said Monnington.
“Aside from payments, we know merchants are also looking for simpler ways to integrate gifting, loyalty and direct marketing platforms to engage customers while maintaining direct relationships. We look forward to partnering with merchants to help bring this to life.”
The Wpay team will also look to trial new ways to help customers pay digitally in-store in the months ahead.