Bizum accelerates its deployment in shops and restaurants: more than 1.6 million businesses already accept payments

BarcelonaAfter an initial half-hearted rollout, Bizum is stepping on the accelerator to consolidate itself as a payment alternative in shops, bars, and restaurants in the country. This Monday, the service provider announced that more than 1.6 million businesses in the country already accept in-person transfers through its platform, a figure equivalent to 75% of bank terminals throughout Spain. According to data provided by the company itself, payments with Bizum are already available to 60% of the platform's users, nearly 20 million people. In these data, the company takes into account both payments that can be completed through the banking applications of some entities and through Bizum Pay, the digital wallet developed by the same platform and which can be downloaded on iOS and Android mobile systems.

Bizum's new momentum is explained by the activation of the service by some of the country's main financial institutions. This same Monday, CaixaBank has authorized this payment method in stores for all its clients, after having launched only a small-scale pilot phase last July. As of today, more than half a million of the bank's terminals will have the service enabled. Similarly to the star-branded entity, BBVA, Bankinter, and Unicaja have also joined the launch. The timingis in line with Bizum's plans, which intended to complete the initial phase of the rollout by the end of this summer. Despite everything, large banks like Santander still keep this function disabled.

From Bizum, they consider that the initial reception of the new payment method is "positive," with "progressive" growth in the number of transactions made. The figures provided by the platform point to an average of three transactions per week for each active user during the last few weeks. "This demonstrates Bizum's ability to gradually become the preferred daily payment solution for citizens," claims the service provider.

More intensive deployment

The first phase of deployment in physical businesses in Spain is about to conclude. Aside from the full activation by some banking entities, the Bizum Pay wallet will be available from this Monday in English and in the rest of the co-official languages of the State, among which is Catalan.

Starting on these dates, the platform will launch a marketing campaign –titled First times– in which it will make known face-to-face payment in shops and establishments. From the banking entities –all of them promoters of the same platform– they will also intensify the deployment so that transfers with Bizum reach more people. The goal behind these actions, points out the platform, is to "consolidate a simple, fast, and secure payment experience in more and more businesses and everyday situations."