Online payments and card transactions offset Covid-19 hits at PayPoint

Shoppers using online payments and card transactions helped PayPoint offset the compensation it paid to customers for an outage in November and the loss of a contract with British Gas.

PayPoint said it had seen a 1.4% drop in retail services net revenue in its most recent quarter to £10.6 million, but said its full-year results would likely reach the higher end of previous projections.

A short outage on November 14 cost the company around £400,000 in compensation to the retailers that use its systems which offset increases in card payment transactions and service fees.

The number of card payment transactions jumped by 46.2% compared with the same period a year earlier, to 49.7 million, while UK parcels transactions increased by 6.6%.

Chief executive Nick Wiles said: “The business continues to show strong resilience and adaptability, delivering a robust performance, in line with expectations, despite increased restrictions in response to Covid-19.

“We have refocused our field team to work with our retailer partners to help them maximise the value of the PayPoint technology in their stores, enabling them to continue to provide essential services to their local community as well as helping them run their businesses more efficiently and understand sales trends from increased footfall as customers continue to shop local.”

PayPoint said it expects card and digital payments will continue to offset reductions in other areas due to Covid-19.

The colder weather in the current quarter is also expected to have a positive impact for the company, as customers use its services to top up their gas.

This comes despite the hit of losing a contract with British Gas which let customers top up their meters on PayPoint machines.

“As we enter the final quarter, our underlying trading performance is at the higher end of our expectations for the year as a whole,” the company said.

The news helped shares rise 3.3% on Thursday morning.

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