Financial infrastructure platform for businesses Stripe has announced the launch of its suite of unified commerce solutions in Australia. Including Stripe Terminal with Tap to Pay on Android for in-person contactless payments, the company’s products can be leveraged by Australian businesses of all sizes to unify online and in-person commerce in a single integration.

Launch context and Stripe’s unified commerce solutions capabilities Based on the information provided in the press release, more than three-quarters of consumer payments in Australia are made with cards. Through the centralisation of card payment data from all sales channels into one dashboard, Stripe’s unified commerce solutions provide businesses with a comprehensive view of sales trends together with customer preferences, giving them the option to leverage this information to improve customer experience and increase revenue opportunities. Karl Durrance, managing director for Australia and New Zealand at Stripe advised that with this launch, the company is looking to assist an increased number of Australian businesses in unlocking the power of unified commerce with one integration, to drive conversion and create a connected experience across ‘siloed channels’ for businesses.

The announcement details that Abacus, FareHarbor, and Splose are amongst the platforms in the region that leverage Terminal to power unified commerce. Being fully compatible with Stripe’s payments platform and Stripe Connect, Terminal allows platforms to provide their business users with the ability to accept in-person and online payments at scale. Furthermore, the solution offers businesses varied reader options and features, including one-reader tipping, as well as offline mode.

Peter Ling, CEO of Abacus advised that the integration between back-end financial operations and contactless ‘front-of-house’ transactions enables a simplified customer experience and helps optimise efficiency. What is more, the announcement further state that no additional hardware is required, and Australian businesses have the option to expand their reach by accepting in-person contactless payments leveraging only the Stripe Terminal SDK and an Android phone or tablet. This is believed to enable platforms to reach markets and verticals that, traditionally, do not use payment hardware, such as tour guides, stylists, or plumbers.

FareHarbor, which provides activity and booking software, is amongst the first businesses on Stripe to provide its customers with the flexibility to have payments accepted anywhere with Tap to Pay on Android. Dominique Oosthuizen, product manager at FareHarbor advised that the solution enables clients to accept in-person payments at all places, using only a mobile phone. They added that as the travel sector in Australia is rebounding, the company aims to offer clients payments tools like Stripe Terminal and Tap to Pay on Android to simplify operations and increase their business.

As per the press release, Stripe supports credit and debit card payment methods in Australia, including Visa, Mastercard, and eftpos, the region’s local card network. .