Two Years of QRIS: Various Adoption Challenges at F&B Startups

Some time ago, DailySocial published a series of articles based on mini surveys with the big topic of QRIS that took the general consumer's point of view and the experience of transacting through digital financial applications. We have published both of them in two different articles, namely first part and The second part.

Continuing the previous series of writings, this time DailySocial trying to validate a number of respondents' assumptions that relate merchant as one of the barriers to the adoption of QRIS in Indonesia. Once again, the mini survey that we conducted some time ago only represented a small part of the facts and challenges. This paper is one of our efforts to bridge issues in the field to stakeholders (stakeholder).

We validated the results of this mini survey by interviewing several F&B startups in Indonesia, including Kopi Kenangan, Hangry, and Livera, regarding their views on adopting QRIS in their outlets.

Customers and Merchant Presented Mode

A little refresher, two years after launch, the Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) transaction value has reached IDR 9 trillion in the first semester of 2021 or grew 214% annually (YoY). Bank Indonesia (BI) also recorded 8,2 million merchant in Indonesia which has adopted QRIS. This number has increased by around 3 million since the end of 2020.

With this achievement, BI strives to continue to increase the adoption of QRIS across all levels of society in Indonesia. Moreover, considering the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic which has not yet ended, the expectation is for non-cash transactions (cashless) will still be there.

One of BI's efforts is to release the Customer Presented Mode feature to make it easier to use QRIS in the near future. Customer Presented Mode enables cashiers merchant to scan (scan) QRIS belongs to cellphone users. Merchants will be provided with tools scanner from the payment provider.

On the other hand, the Merchant Presented Mode that we usually use for transactions enables transactions by scanning the QRIS on merchantt and complete the transaction via the desired payment application. Before QRIS is launched, users must enter the telephone number on each EDC belonging to the payment service provider.

"In the near future, we will also soon launch the Customer Presented Mode feature because now we only have Merchant Presented Mode. We are also currently piloting QRIS transactions for cross border, good inbound as well as dan outbound," said Assistant Governor and Head of the Payment System Policy Department of Bank Indonesia Filianingsih Hendarta some time ago.

Validating the issue of QRIS adoption in merchant

Based on the results of the QRIS mini survey, we summarize several of the main reasons respondents have not made transactions using the QRIS method. First, respondents assess merchant just making QRIS a 'display', aka not being utilized properly. Second, QRIS is available, but not yet activated merchant.

Third, officers or cashiers do not understand how to process transactions with QRIS. Fourth, QRIS is used too much  at the outlet because each payment service provider has its own QRIS. Lastly, QRIS availability at merchants is still limited.

We have tried to validate the above by gathering broader perspectives from various F&B startups. However, only Kopi Kenangan, Hangry and Livera are willing to reveal their perspectives on implementing QRIS. The challenges they experience are quite different considering that Kopi Kenangan relies on physical outlets, while Hangry and Livera rely on cloud kitchen.

In his statement to DailySocial, Kopi Kenangan management said that as many as 500 of its physical outlets have accepted the QRIS-based payment method. According to his notes, Kopi Kenangan transaction volume using the QRIS payment method increased by 98% from May 2020 to August 2021. This growth is in line with the increase awareness public towards the QRIS payment method.

His party rejected the notion that the cashier did not understand the use of QRIS. The reason is, Kopi Kenangan said that it always provides education to staff regarding the procedures for using QRIS. Usually, staff at outlets ask customers about their preferred payment methods and promotions.

"So far the main challenge we have experienced is internet connection instability. This makes the QRIS transaction process difficult. Sometimes Barcode does not appear, or appears but cannot be accessedscan," said Kopi Kenangan Management.

Meanwhile, Hangry COO Andreas Resha admitted that he had not faced any crucial obstacles when his merchant staff processed QRIS transactions. The reason is, most order transactions at Hangry use the method delivered rather than takeaways.

"We don't have exact numbers, but we have seen a decline since the pandemic, especially with more people doing activities at home. Therefore, method delivered those that do not use QRIS are more widely used than methods takeaway," he said.

Currently, Hangry has implemented the QRIS payment method in 49 outlets spread across the Jabodetabek and Bandung areas. Andreas admitted that his party is currently preparing a restaurant concept dine-in which will open in the near future and will include the QRIS payment method as well.

From a different perspective, Livera Founder and CEO Marcello Judhandoyo assesses that the adoption of QRIS seems to be underutilized for F&B business players who use cloud kitchen. The reason is, money from transactions for purchasing food/drinks via the platform ride hailing automatically log in merchant 

little information, cloud kitchen is a term used for restaurants that do not provide dine-in services (dine in), but only has a food delivery service option (delivered) and pick it up on the spot (takeaway).

"When talking about adopting QRIS in the F&B business, we use it cloud kitchen actually less than optimal. But if it's a case of manual ordering via WhatsApp, it's actually possible. Livera offers payment via QRIS by sending Barcode to consumers. Unfortunately, in this case, most Livera consumers are more I prefer transfer method. In fact, QRIS is much easier, consumers don't need to bother asking which bank account they are using, let alone having to register them one by one in the application. mobile banking," he explained.

Livera just started the business in 2020 where its operations are just using cloud kitchen. Meanwhile, orders for new products can be made via delivered on the platform Gojek, Grab, and Tokopedia as well as ordering manually via WhatsApp

Expanding QRIS access

No one expected that the world would face the Covid-19 pandemic where mobility would be very limited. In fact, several months before the first PSBB policy, the Government had just launched QRIS. This momentum can actually encourage QRIS adoption, even more significantly than its current achievements.

At the same time, trends cloud kitchen is currently developing among F&B businesses to get around the stifling costs and business uncertainty amidst the pandemic. People also choose to make transactions more quickly and easily without the need to meet face to face or make physical contact.

The government's steps to introduce Customer Presented Mode can also help accelerate QRIS adoption. Nevertheless, it is much more important to expand its implementation so that it does not rest on merchant modern retail only. As many as 87,3% of our respondents expect QRIS to be used by street vendors, markets (81%), government services (76,2%), and public transportation (68,3%). This is actually what is most anticipated to accelerate more massive adoption of QRIS.