Digital marketing giant Sensis’s True Local unit is looking to expand the footprint of its Skip app across the country, with recently appointed boss David Scribner saying the payment solution is ready to build on the success achieved in Melbourne.
The order, pay and collect app came to life in Melbourne and for Mr Scribner, who took over the reins at True Local in March, the time was right for Skip to flex its muscles nationally.
“Skip is now making inroads into all major metros and proving its worth as a powerful business efficiency tool,” Mr Scribner told The Australian.
Skip is currently at use in over 950 venues throughout Australia, there’s an ongoing partnership with Qantas that enables Club & Lounge Members to use the app to order their coffee before jumping on their flight; and TrueLocal has also given Skip a solid workout at the Melbourne Cup Racing Carnival (Flemington), Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and the Australian Grand Prix.
According to Mr Scribner, the last three quarters has seen a 15 per cent quarter on quarter growth in users and on average 41 per cent growth in venue sign ups
Sydney is one market that has shown immense growth for Skip in the last quarter alone, with value growth increasing by 16 per cent.
“We have seamless integration as we connect a customer into a business’s existing workflow,” Mr Scribner said.
“There are also a host of other services, such as an analytics layer that can better inform the business.”
The smartphone lies at the heart of why apps like Skip are striving to become the main conduit between customers and services. While small businesses have numerous technology tools at their disposal Mr Skapiner said Sensis’s objective was to help them make the most of tools.
“Our goal is to make local SMBs digitally confident,” he said.
“We want to help them enhance their digital presence and win bigger market share.”
As for Skip, Mr Skapiner said that the next 12 months are about putting the app into circulation into all of the major metros.
“Each city is different so we will need to be smart about the marketing,” he said.
“But we are well placed to make most of the growing popularity of electronic payments, there’s no tapping, no swiping just a seamless transaction for both parties.”
Seamless transactions are a relative new category of service but as it becomes more mainstream the technology could be the next step in Australia’s path to making cash and cards obsolete.
However, Mr Skapiner, the former CEO of Virgin Mobile, said that ongoing adoption will rely on one key factor.
“Experience is absolutely critical and has to be optimal.”
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