Q3 Trading Update Guesses, page-21

"It may be nothing but I, on purpose, often use Smartpay terminals to pay despite having cash on me. This is mainly for my butcher and grocer. What I have observed is that the 'add on' is increasing over time. For example, just a few days back, I bought something worth under $20 and the surcharge was 50 cents, whereas it is usually 20-25 cents for such amount. I will be surprised if SMP is giving any of this amount to their customers."

Not just that, but as it occurred to me about 6 or 7 months ago, with the general level of inflation in goods and services rising at a faster rate these days, SMP is a "pro-inflation" business model, expect that it doesn't have to put up its own price list; SMP's customers are doing that for the company. So there's a built-in ARPU tailwind.


"So far, I have not met any merchant who is unhappy with Smartpay so they are growing partly due to their service and partly because other players are messing up either with cost or service."

Yes, but the converse is also true, I've found. Feedback I've solicited from merchants using competitor terminals has been that they are generally happy with what they are using. My sense is that they view terminals as mere un-differentiated services.

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