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Coronavirus has been one of the toughest problems that small businesses have had to face in 2020, especially for those working in the food, hospitality and tourism sector. But amid all of this, some businesses have seen growth during pandemic. One of these restaurants is Phoreal, a Vietnamese street food vendor that uses Pomelo Pay to take payments and orders online.

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How Pomelo Pay boosted Phoreal’s revenue by 10%

Thanks to Pomelo Pay, Tom - Phoreal’s founder and manager - has managed to open up two new sales channels for his business. With Pomelo Pay’s QR code payment, customers can order and pay from their phone and spend less time waiting in the queue. With Payment links, Tom can accept large online orders at a distance:

Thanks to the QR code feature, taking orders online and safely has become 10 times easier. As Tom explains:

“Because of social distancing, QR codes are the answer to the problem because customers don’t need to queue up in a line - you can put the QR code anywhere, outside, inside, anywhere - all they need to do is scan it and then pay for it.. I benefit from it because you can virtually do anything with it. It is the answer to the social distancing and issues that we are having right now in 2020.”

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How Phoreal uses QR codes

There are many advantages to using QR codes, one of them being that customers can now pay from a safe distance with their phones. The process is simple:

                1.   Tom displays a clearly printed QR code on the front of his market stall

                2.   A customer scans the QR code with their camera app, which instantly
                      takes them to a separate menu page

                3.   They can then pick the food they wish to order on their phone, and then
                      complete the payment right there and then

                4.   Tom receives the order request and then proceeds to prepare the meal

                5.   The meal is prepared and the customer simply needs to pick it up
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The entire process is touch free, and a lot more efficient for both the customer and owner. There are fewer queues, less time fumbling around for change and no room for interpretation - customers can add any allergies or special requests directly into the app.

See an example of another Pomelo Shop similar to Pho Real: Beefcakes.

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How Phoreal uses Payment Links

Tom is also a big fan of the payment links feature:

“Payment links are my favourite. A lot of people take card payments over the phone which I don’t think is safe. So I send them the payment link through to their phone directly by taking their name and phone number. They then pay for it, and then I know that the order has been secured.”

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This makes booking for large orders a lot more seamless and easy to do, and large orders are essential for any business working throughout lockdown. These features have also allowed him to reach customers in ways he hadn’t before:

“Pomelo is great to keep people apart safely and easily social distance whilst taking payments. It makes you think that this is the future of now, this is how it goes now - people are using their mobile phones more now, people are using apps now. It hasn’t changed my day to day routine. All I needed to do was train my staff so they could use it with customers.

Pomelo Pay is a powerful tool that allows my business to engage with my customers freely online, build better relationships, increase sales and better marketing for the future.”

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The Pomelo Pay app has helped Tom a lot during lockdown; not just to manage his clients but also his business in general:

“The app is stable, easy to use, especially the dashboard. Everything is easy, including the order page. Once the order goes through, you can see all the details and track it.”

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Thanks to all this, Tom is now proud to say that his revenue has actually increased rather than decreased throughout lockdown:

“Pomelo Pay has boosted my revenue by 10% with online orders, which I never achieved in the past.”
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A bit about Phoreal

Phoreal is a truly unique street food store that sells Vietnamese street food, and is situated in the Kingston Ancient Market. They’re currently ranking as the number one place to go eat in Kingston Borough, and have even received a Certificate of Excellence in 2017 as well as 5 stars rating on Google.

As most reviewers say, not only is the food “off the charts”, but the service is both “personal and professional”. Favourite dishes include the Beef Pho and BBQ pork, as well as good coffee. Their food stand means eating is straightforward: you can order the food to go, so there’s no need to book a table or sit down with the food.

Interested in trying out QR codes? You can start taking online orders and mobile payments with Pomelo Pay immediately for free!

Learn more about Payment Links and QR codes on our Features page.