WeChat 5.5 is coming! O2O highlights: card wallet and micro POS

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WeChat will launch the official version of WeChat 5.5 (not version 6.0) on the 26th of this month. The core upgrades include the addition of the card bag function and the micro-video function. One of the biggest upgrades will target the card and voucher management and offline payment markets and launch the WeChat card bag function.

Different from previous functions such as face-to-face payment, WeChat Card Wallet is not only a new function for hundreds of millions of WeChat users, but will also affect the way offline merchants operate. At the same time, micro POS products will officially enter the public market from the previous internal testing stage.

The launch of WeChat 5.5 shows that WeChat is accelerating its promotion on the merchant side. The online and offline closed loop of consumption created is composed of merchants + users + WeChat (card wallet) + micro POS products. The WeChat card wallet function and micro POS are two entry points. On the WeChat side, the official account is for card coupon distribution, and the card wallet is for storage box management; the offline micro POS user card coupon verification is also a card coupon distribution point.

What exactly is WeChat Card Wallet? What impact will it have on the consumption and operation models of individuals and businesses? What is Tencent's appeal in this regard? Let's take a look at the mystery.

Entry point 1: WeChat card wallet function

What is WeChat Card Wallet?

The card wallet feature added in WeChat 5.5 is a product similar to Passport in iOS, which can aggregate information such as bank cards, coupons, movie tickets, membership cards, etc. in your traditional physical wallet.

The difference is that WeChat's card wallet appears in the WeChat main directory "Me", a new submenu under the wallet. Passport is an app that exists in iOS. From this perspective, WeChat has become a "system-level app."

(WeChat card package function interface)

For users: entrance becomes shallower and unified management

What WeChat Card Wallet can do has been explained in the above description. At present, it has two main uses for individuals, mainly increasing the convenience and ease of use of cards and coupons.

Personal use: 1. Manage bank cards, coupons and other information.

Personal use 2. Extract the coupons, discount coupons and other information originally existing in the public accounts or service accounts of various service providers from the more basic public account/service account menu and display them in the card and coupon menu.

The advantage of this is that users can manage their card and coupon information just like using a real wallet.

(Due to the social nature of WeChat, coupons and membership cards can be shared)

For merchants: Lightweight ERP for card and coupon distribution

In fact, the card wallet function is more meaningful for merchants. At the beginning of the year, after I disclosed the information about Su Kai, the founder of WeChat POS hardware "MicroPOS", in ***, it caused the misunderstanding that "WeChat is involved" in offline payment and threatens UnionPay payment. Later, Tencent also treated this statement in a low-key manner and distanced itself from the fact that it was not directly involved in the hardware.

In fact, there are two aspects that are indispensable for the integration of WeChat wallet, card wallet and offline payment. One is hardware products such as WeChat POS machines, and the other is the participation of offline merchants.

Entry point 2: Micro POS

Merchants and users can interact online through the WeChat platform. For example, users can obtain coupons from the merchant’s official account through an event, or apply for a membership card, which will be stored in the user’s “Card and Coupon” package on WeChat.

When shopping offline, you can quickly record and delete cards and coupons by scanning them through the WeChat POS device.

In this process, merchants will have a clear management background for the distribution of cards and coupons. This is a link between offline consumption and online relationships achieved by WeChat-type POS devices + WeChat client.

Su Kai, the founder of Zhangbei Micro POS, believes that this method is a good way to connect offline merchants to the Internet, allowing all offline merchants to form a network similar to Taobao.

(Micro POS point function logic)

Micro POS aims to become an offline entry

The hardware manufacturers' demands, on the one hand, are to distribute devices through channels like UnionPay, which traditionally conducts POS business, and collect a certain commission from the payment amount. It is reported that the commission ratio given by WeChat is 3‰, which is higher than the usual 1~2‰ ratio of UnionPay POS in channel revenue.

But this is not the final demand. Su Kai believes that the profit model of micro-POS products should be based on the merchant's card and coupon distribution function. Because the core functions of micro-POS products now include payment collection and card and coupon elimination, and another function that can be realized is card and coupon distribution. The device itself uses the Android mobile phone hardware and software architecture, and users can scan the QR code on the screen to obtain discount cards and coupons.

When such terminals accumulate to a certain scale, they will become a large card and coupon distribution platform, or in other words, an advertising platform. This is similar to the elevator video advertising of Focus Media.

Core element: QR code

In this transaction process composed of software and hardware, in which merchants and users interact and trade with each other, QR codes play a very important role, or can be said to be one of the most core innovations.

For example, in the payment process, "scan and pay" has not been fully approved by the government, but according to Su Kai, the founder of Zhangbei Micro POS, the government has already allowed it by default, but does not encourage its promotion. However, in actual operation, neither Alipay nor WeChat wants to use this convenient technology too low-key.

In addition, for example, when it comes to collecting coupons, our traditional way is to distribute them at distribution points, and users receive paper coupons; in recent years, a new type of distribution equipment has been placed near busy subway stations to allow users to obtain quickly printed paper vouchers.

According to the combination of WeChat Card Wallet and Micro POS, users can obtain coupons by scanning the QR code, which is then stored in the WeChat client. Users can then scan and consume using WeChat POS products at the consumption location.

In this way, the methods of distributing coupons become very diverse, breaking the limitations of time and space. As long as there is a place to display it, coupons can be distributed in the form of QR codes.

Tencent's appeal: Solve WeChat's profit dilemma

From online payment to offline payment, Tencent placed the payment function in a very important position this year when iterating WeChat. What is the reason?

According to industry insiders, the reason for this development direction is that the demand for profits during the development of WeChat has not yet met the goals of Tencent Group.

By connecting with users and merchants in terms of payment methods, more profit opportunities will arise.

At the same time, this will be another major change in user consumption patterns after mobile payment. It is said that Tencent has not yet started a new round of spending on mobile payment in the second half of the year based on the card wallet function.