Pay The PayDragon Way

PayDragon, if you have not already heard all about it during SXSW, is a mobile app that aims to let customer order and pay for items that they are interested in completely online. Paypal, watch out. It PayDragon rolls this one out properly, it is about to give Paypal a run for their money. PayDragon works pretty much the same way Paypal’s Merchant page works but I am unclear about how useful and reliable it is on a mobile device like a cell phone or a tablet.

The sole purpose of PayDragon is to make ordering and paying as seamless as possible, even when they are standing right there in a queue outside the restaurant or the retail outlet. There are, so far, raving reviews about it because of how seamless it is on the front-end, all thanks to the polished finish delivered by the back-end people. The app boasts of its one-click payment process and for businesses, they can use a relatively uncomplicated ordering and delivering system.

PayDragon comes with a QR Code. Business owners can log in and add items into their personalized menu or product page and then create a QR Code for it. Customers come in, see the QR Code and scan it to order and pay.

For those who do not know about QR Codes yet can order the more conventional way, which is to manually add the item to the shopping cart.

What I can see so far about the app is this – let’s assume that you are sitting in your office and you have absolutely no idea what to eat for dinner, you log onto PayDragon, browse around and find something that you like. Without moving a muscle (well…not TOO MANY  muscles), you get to order your dinner right there in the office, go home and enjoy your meal. Or pop by the restaurant after work, walk right up the counter to pick up your meal. Ordering stuff online via PayDragon also means that there is no longer a need to enter and re-enter your credit card information, shipping address, and other preferences whenever you use the app. It basically enhances and shortens your online shopping experience.

What was funny was how they decided to push the app into the market. They opted for a more conventional method which is to partner up with some food trucks around Austin TX and then get consumers to download and use the app to order the food. Those who relented were rewarded with goodies.

The idea of using food trucks for promotion is getting old so, I am not sure why they did not go off on a more techie route. Anyway, bottom line is PayDragon is good news for small business that have no extra money to invest in their own apps and since security is more likely to be better on PayDragon, it can’t be bad idea to ride their wave.