People worldwide are well familiar with a QR code's iconic black and white square design. Two trends explain why we are likely to see more and more of these iconic square designs pop up in our everyday lives. The first is smartphone usage has spiked from 10% in 2014 to 36% in 2018, coupled with access to high-speed cellular internet increasing from 48.8% in 2014 to 61.2% in 2018. These aspects have led to widespread dissemination of QR Codes into more and more apps globally. QR-enabled payments are also seeing an increase in the African and Middle Eastern countries with a surge of 12% in 2017 to 18% in 2018. 

This touchless method of bill payment is expected to pick-up a rigorous speed and growth.  And these numbers are before the global COVID outbreak. The pandemic has opened the mindscape to force innovative uses for contactless technologies, QR Codes being the leading player in this genre. As per a report done by Gartner, 80% of the orders, checkouts, and payment services will become contactless by 2024.

The Unstoppable Force of QR Codes 

Retailers and technology firms are paving the way for this incoming QR explosion. At times, it just takes a little innovation and the right opportunity to make the most out of new technology. QR codes have made somewhat of a comeback from the choice of restaurants to display their menus to now serving as the fulcrum to facilitating easy bill payments for users all over the world. 

Digital marketing firm Juniper Research predicts that the use of QR codes for electronic payments will surge over 300% over the next five years. And about 5.3 billion QR code coupons will be redeemed by smartphones, and 1 billion smartphones will access QR codes by 2022.

According to Apple, 92% of its devices are QR code-ready. This is after they introduced the QR code reading feature into the camera app from iOS 12 onwards. Not only have QR codes succeeded in overcoming the hurdle of downloading an additional app, but the average Internet speed has also grown to 5.6 Mbps, which allows users to scan QR codes at lightning speed. The QR code line of business is on a steep upsurge.

Higher Speed, Lower Risk

If you have scanned a QR code, you must be familiar with the speed and the responsiveness with which it takes you to a specific web page. This is exactly how a QR code allows customers to pay their bills faster by a simple one-click process.

According to a research report published by Statista, around 11 million households in the United States alone will scan QR codes in 2020. This number is way bigger than 9.76 million scans that were recorded in 2018. 

Surprisingly, the US is not the only country where QR Codes are picking-up well. Countries like Canada, France, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, India, Thailand, and Indonesia are not far behind in the race. QR technology is being adopted at an accelerated rate throughout the world due to its several advantages. 

Value Proposition of QR Code

QR code comes with numerous valuable perks that are helping the users to access easy bill payment. Here are some of the major benefits it offers:

1. Quick Bill Payments

One of the biggest advantages of integrating QR codes is that it facilitates quick transactions. It is extremely fast as compared to other modes of bill payment. All a person needs to do is simply open the QR integrated app, scan the code, and make the payment. Within seconds, the payments are made. 

QR code witnessed a tremendous surge in Africa and the Middle East region, where the cumulative usage grew from 12 percent in 2017 to 18 percent in 2018.

2. Safe and Secure 

Making payments by scanning the QR codes is completely safe since it is just a tool used to exchange data. Any information which is transferred via QR codes is encrypted, thus making the payment extremely secure.

According to a survey carried by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Visa Inc., and GfK, in 2019, , 4% of all consumer transactions done globally were carried through QR Codes.

3. Easy to Set-up

Setting up QR code payments is remarkably simple. You only need your smartphone to scan the QR code, either in electronic or printed form. The method of QR codes for payments also eradicates the necessity of a point of sale (POS) machine or any other special equipment or infrastructure to process the bill payments.

According to Beaconstac (2019), India and Southeast Asia will be the most extensive region to scan QR Codes by 2020 at 8 million and 15 million, respectively. 

4. Higher Reliability

QR code facilitated bill payments are a fail-safe payment method as it eliminates the possibility of any kind of error. The QR code patterns consist of unique data, improving the reliability of the QR code payments.

Conclusion

QR code technology not only enhances the pace of the payment process, but also eliminates the risk of possible errors, such as filling out the incorrect payment details. As information reading errors and manual data entry are drastically reduced while dealing with QR enabled payments. All in all, the QR Code is capable of mammoth-like growth, scaled to grow at a steady pace in terms of global usage.