Case Study - A Grocery Store in Malta

Who’s loving wamo? This series of case studies gets feedback from real businesses who are enjoying the difference that wamo has made to managing their business finances.

We say that wamo makes ‘things’ easier for micro and small businesses - but what exactly do we mean by that? We want to give you some real examples of how we’ve made a positive impact by presenting interviews that we’ve had with some of our current wamo clients.

Greendale, a small grocery store in Bugibba in Malta has embraced wamo as their preferred way to take payments. The shop’s manager, Melissa, gave us her feedback:

The pandemic made a touchless solution vital

The wamo QR payment sticker is displayed at the cash register in Greendale. Customers scan it with their smartphone cameras, which opens up their Apple wallet, type in the amount they owe and hit send. If you live in Malta you’ll know that Revolut is one of the most popular banking apps there, and we’ve made it just as easy to pay with Revolut - customers simply open their Revolut app, scan the wamo QR code sticker and pay through Revolut.

As was the case for so many businesses across the globe and in Malta, cash was king before the pandemic. At Greendale they were used to dealing mainly in cash and didn’t need a method for accepting cards at all. But of course the pandemic changed all that. Suddenly, offering a contactless option was essential for the business to survive - nobody wanted to touch cash and things were looking troubling. In a pressured bid to find a solution fast, the shop’s owner introduced wamo and a POS machine at the same time. Whatever worked best, they would run with it.

Melissa tells us why wamo quickly became the preferred payment option:

“When it came to it, wamo was just easier. There’s no waiting for approval from the machine - which can be a pain when it’s busy here, no printing of receipts which saves money and time. And of course for the customers it is always easier to remember your phone than your card and wallet!”

According to Melissa, the switch to using wamo QR code stickers to pay was easy for customers to understand and as she pointed out: “It’s especially good that customers don’t have to have a wamo account themselves, or sign up to anything or download any app. This is really important because people just want to pay and go.”

She tells us that the role-based access to the wamo business account is appealing too. This is a feature of a wamo business account that allows the main account holder to set access limits to team members / employees/ staff. This applies to the main account as well as to all sub-accounts. This means, for example, that the manager might have full access while the staff member on duty may only have access to see payments coming in from customers, but can’t access reporting or see money being transferred to other bank accounts or from one sub-account to another.

With wamo you don’t need a POS machine to take payments

When it comes to choosing between a POS machine and wamo QR payments in a business like this, these are the key advantages of wamo business account to remember:

• wamo scan and pay is quicker - helpful for when things get busy
• a wamo business account for small businesses is more affordable with lower fees and no initial investment cost for a device
• the customer is in control and only needs their phone
• no need to keep a POS machine charged no printing needed

The advantages of having a wamo business account if you own a small business:

• take payments directly into your wamo account, see them arrive instantly
• limit access to employees as you choose
• get your suppliers (and anyone you do business with) to open a wamo business account and enjoy fee-free wamo2wamo payments, always

We’ve outlined features that are most relevant to a business like the one described here. A wamo business account comes with many more powerful features and tools - take a look at other case studies for more.

Parts of this blog first appeared in this Times of Malta article.