DIY and tool retailer Toolstation has become one of the largest online retailers to offer customers ‘pay-by-bank’ payments, as it adopts a series of different open banking enabled products to maximise customer experience.
Pay-by-bank is increasingly being looked at as a fast and easy way for consumers to pay online for goods and potentially could surpass cards and other online payment methods in the years ahead,
To deliver the service, Toolstation has partnered Ecospend, a leading UK provider of open banking technology, which will integrated into Toolstation’s customer app and website. In doing so, Trade Account Customers will be able to settle their account balance, without the risk of inputting the wrong details, and fraud risk will be minimised.
Payments will be made via Ecospend’s account-to-account technology, ensuring a smooth customer journey that requires no card details or any data to be imputed. Instead, customers simply select the pay-by-bank option, authenticate their identity with their biometric ID, and confirm the payment – resulting in an instant transaction.
Toolstation’s Trade Account customers will also be able to pay their bills instantly via QR codes sent to them in the post.Customers just need to scan the QR code and confirm the payment, Ecospend’s ‘pay-by-bank’ technology will ensure an instant payment to Toolstation.
Finally, Ecospend’s ‘management console’ technology will be available to Toolstation agents, which allows them to send out payment links in bulk to anyone that needs to settle their balance. The technology can send payment links through all messaging platforms, and it will instigate an instant account-to-account payment. This was previously a manual process and through Ecospend’s open banking technology, Toolstation’s agents will be able to significantly cut down on administration time spent on debt collection.
Richard Lavin, Finance Director, at Toolstation, comments: “We are excited to be embracing the latest technology to help ensure we offer our customers as smooth as service as possible. Ecospend’s wide range of tools meant that they are a perfect fit for us in delivering the best service to our Trade Account Customers. Additionally, by using this technology, we are helping our customers shop as securely as possible, which is imperative in a world where fraud risk is rising.”
James Hickman, CEO, Ecospend, adds: “This is yet another high-profile example of the benefits that open banking payment technology can bring to big businesses and their customers. It is especially positive to see Toolstation adopt open banking in multiple different forms, allowing them to really benefit from our technology. Through our ‘pay-by-bank’ pathway, Toolstation will not only be able to significantly improve the efficiency of their customer journey, but save both time and money which can be spent on further developing the business.”
