Helping the planet one plate at a time
Tofu Vegan has quickly captured the hearts (and stomachs) of non-vegan and vegan Londoners alike, cementing their position as a top vegan food joint.
With their slogan being ‘Every step saves the planet’, Tofu Vegan aims to support environmental sustainability, while promoting healthy food choices. They achieve this with their unique plant-based menu, which adds a fresh spin on traditional Chinese dishes. Alongside this, they’ve achieved notable praises by British Vogue, Women’s Health and The Independent for their tasty meat-free meals, helping them garner a devout number of social media followers.
Since opening their first location in Islington in 2021, Tofu Vegan has launched several branches across London including locations in Golders Green and Spitalfields, withplans to eventually open another store in West London. So, why did the popular vegan restaurant decide to partner with emerchantpay for seamless card payments? Let’s find out.
The challenge
Given the fast-changing nature of the payments landscape, including customers’ preferred payment methods, it was vital for Tofu Vegan to have a dynamic and trusted payments partner to help them manage processing costs and meet the evolving needs of their customers. Before partnering with emerchantpay, Tofu Vegan faced significant payment challenges such as outdated payment systems, limited transparency with processing fees and a lack of personalised support. These issues hindered their ability to provide a seamless payment experience for customers and optimise their payment processes.
Tofu Vegan selected emerchantpay for its holistic approach to payments that combines a smooth payment experience with dedicated support. With over 20 years of experience in simplifying payments, emerchantpay’s wealth of expert knowledge combined with a proven track record for supporting restaurants made us well-placed to help Tofu Vegan maximise their payments.
‘emerchantpay’s comprehensive payment package is what set them apart to us. The team took the time to properly understand what we were looking for and diligently mapped out a solution for our business.’Zhang Chao | Founder of Tofu Vegan
Furthermore, emerchantpay’s personalised support gives Tofu Vegan access to a dedicated person who picks up the phone and addresses their specific concerns promptly, alleviating their payment challenges. This level of attention was crucial for Tofu Vegan to feel supported and valued as a customer.
‘We were looking for a payment provider that was efficient and could adapt quickly to changed customer purchase preferences.’Zhang Chao | Founder of Tofu Vegan.
The solutions
Seamless payments start with understanding the unique needs of businesses and customers. We worked closely with Tofu Vegan to identify specific solutions for each of their three restaurants, ensuring this matched their business objectives and payment needs. This led us to set them up with our modern and easy-to-use PAX A920 terminal, alongside providing value-adding payment services to help them stay abreast of changing customer payment preferences. The elegant design and user-friendly features made this card terminal a standout option for Tofu Vegan and aligned well with their card processing needs, while simplifying the way their customers make payments.
Tofu Vegan currently uses four terminals across their three restaurants in London. Each terminal operates using powerful software and modern touchscreens, with the added versatility of taking payments on the go using Wi-Fi and 4G connectivity. Alongside this, the terminal’s cordless and PCI compliant features mean that staff can securely take payments, including gratuities, directly from the customer’s table, without the customer needing to get up and wait in a queue. Its long-lasting battery and intuitive Android interface mean staff can easily use it to take payments smoothly throughout the day without interruptions, providing a frictionless purchase experience for customers.
‘There are so many things that go into running a business. emerchantpay’s effective and high-quality payments solution has simplified our payments system, giving us one less thing to worry about. The whole process from start to finish has been really smooth and the customer service is excellent – you can tell that the team really cares about helping your business grow.’Zhang Chao | Founder of Tofu Vegan
The terminal is set up for chip and pin as well as NFC, providing their customers with greater flexibility to pay how they choose. From tapping a card to using a digital wallet such as Apple Pay and Google Pay™; the terminal is designed to make payments easy for their customers and staff.
‘During peak times, having a payment solution that can process transactions quickly and frictionlessly is vital. emerchantpay’s terminals do just that, with a set of fantastic features like being cordless and having a large battery. It makes the whole payment experience simple and pleasant for our customers.’Zhang Chao | Founder of Tofu Vegan
Additionally, we’ve helped them to stay on top of their card processing costs and streamlined their cash flow by offering them faster settlements. This has made it easier for Tofu Vegan to manage their finances and allowed them to invest more in expanding their business.
The impact
Our POS solutions in combination with one-on-one support have helped enhance Tofu Vegan’s payment flow, providing a smooth and secure customer experience. Our comprehensive, user-friendly onboarding process facilitated Tofu Vegan’s fast transition from setting up the solution to having the terminals ready to operate.
‘Since we started with emerchantpay, they’ve helped us keep our payment acceptance rates high and reduced our card processing costs by around 30%. As a small business, it’s integral for us to keep operating costs as low as possible, so we can invest in growing our restaurants. With emerchantpay’s all-in-one payments package, we’ve been able to do just that.’Zhang Chao | Founder of Tofu Vegan
Beyond this, the card terminal’s user-friendly features have positively impacted day-to-day operations, from waiters being able to frictionlessly process bills for customers to managers being able to efficiently reconcile transactions at the end of the day. Having a reliable and efficient card terminal has helped make it easier for Zhang to manage his business, while dually delivering an exceptional payment experience for his customers.
Having a dedicated account manager who’s quick to respond and passionate about helping Tofu Vegan grow has added a unique touch, reinforcing their trust in our solution and capabilities.
Whenever I need help with anything, their customer service team always responds very quickly and communication is extremely easy for me. This is one of the key reasons why we selected emerchantpay as our exclusive provider for all three of our restaurants. We plan to continue our partnership with emerchantpay in the future as we expand our locations.’Zhang Chao | Founder of Tofu Vegan
Alongside a customer-first approach, we’re passionate about providing our clients with all the support they need to accelerate their business. Our one-stop-shop payments package includes access to a comprehensive dashboard report, which allows merchants to clearly analyse key transaction metrics like transaction volumes, transaction statuses and more. Having oversight of these key metrics has been instrumental in supporting Tofu Vegan’s growth strategy, allowing them to identify and harness opportunities for business expansion.
‘The data provided by emerchantpay’s reporting dashboard has been especially valuable, like transaction volumes and transaction statuses. These valuable insights have given me oversight of how my business is performing, while allowing me to make decisions that support the growth of my business.’Zhang Chao | Founder of Tofu Vegan
Furthermore, emerchantpay’s proactive commitment to understanding Tofu Vegan’s unique business needs and value-added services have been an important part of their entry into new areas in London like Spitalfields and Golders Green. We’re excited to build on our partnership with them by helping them continue accepting payments smoothly. Keep your eyes peeled for more news on the launch of their next venue in West London!