This is what we were waiting for. After all that hassle of getting ready for the CASHLESS rebate program, how many people were actually going to go cashless to get the rebates? NHK reports that the MiniStop convenience store chain saw a 6% rise in cashless payments use rates in the first week of the rebate program, rising from 24% to 30%. MiniStop president Akihiro Fujimoto said he was surprised at the quick uptake. I’m not.
30% was the informal Apple Pay Suica use rate I found in station areas in 2017. The MiniStop number is just one data point from one store chain, so it will be interesting to see how cashless use rate averages pan out over time. Convenience stores chains offer 2% rebates with cashless purchases, calculated and deducted from the customer bill at checkout. Smaller store 2%~5% rebates are post-transaction refunds. Despite the small data sample size, I think we are already seeing the beginnings of a tipping point here.
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