This first-of-its-kind development was pre-launched with Canada’s largest retailers at RCC Store - and comes at a key moment in time given the rapid shift to e-commerce triggered by the pandemic.

“Retailers have historically relied on card payments for online sales,” said Mike Bradley, CEO and Founder of Clik2pay. “Adding Clik2pay as an online payment option reduces the cost of payments for retailers and opens up online shopping to the millions of Canadians who do not have a credit card or who prefer to pay directly from their bank account.”

An increasing number of businesses were already making the move to online, but during the pandemic “e-commerce became essential to non-essential businesses,” according to Statistics Canada. In March, Payments Canada reported that 49 per cent of Canadians are using e-commerce more often than pre-pandemic. Yet, online purchases are heavily skewed to credit cards, which can cost a staggering 100 times more than debit card in-store. As a result, the cost of payments has gone up for retailers throughout the pandemic.

“The shift to e-commerce and curbside pickup has led to higher costs, just part of the new normal that retailers are living every day,” said Terry Mathews, Principal of Mathews Consulting, who has led financial services and payments for – and now advises - many of Canada’s largest retailers. “Clik2pay at the online checkout comes in at a fraction of the price of other payment types - often less than half for large organizations. That creates significant cost savings for a busy retailer.”

Clik2pay leverages multiple layers of bank-grade security and the highest standards for risk management by using one of the most secure money transfer services globally.

Clik2pay also supports bill and invoice payments from customer bank accounts by text message, e-mail or QR code. Clik2pay features for businesses include easy-to-use APIs, end-to-end payment tracking, real-time notifications, status updates, transaction history and a complete settlement file.