Saint-Sixtus Abbey welcomes payment tech upgrade with Ingenico
Ingenico Group, the global leader in seamless payments, has welcomed a new partnership with the Saint-Sixtus Abbey, brewers of the Trappist Westvleteren, to provide a global payments solution that supports the increased international demand for its famous beer.
Saint-Sixtus Abbey of Westvleteren, which belongs to the Cistercians of Strict Observance, or Trappists, is a Roman Catholic abbey located in Westvleteren, in the Belgian Province of West Flanders. The Abbey is famous for its spiritual life, characterized by prayer, reading, and manual work, the three basic elements of Trappist life. It has also a reputation for its brewery, one of the several breweries of Trappist beer in Belgium. The monks of the Abbey started brewing beer alongside their monastic activities in 1839. All beer types produced in the Abbey carry the label of “Authentic Trappist Product”, which means they are brewed within the walls of a Trappist monastery under the control of the monks community. The production is limited and aims to cover costs of the Abbey’s operations, sponsorships of charitable initiatives and social projects.
Both the Abbey and the beer were little known until 2005, when a user-driven ranking website for craft beer enthusiasts named the Trappist Westvleteren the best beer in the world. Word of mouth made the beer a “must taste” product among beer connoisseurs. It has since been awarded the title four more times and was named as one of the best beers for taste, making international beer lovers enthusiastic to buy it.
Because of this growing demand and the limited stock, the Abbey faced a number of issues with customers stockpiling products and reselling them for much higher prices. In 2019 the Abbey began cooperating with Ingenico to develop an online payment solution, which could control orders and enable foreign customers to buy their beloved beer without overpaying. Ingenico worked with the Abbey to establish a novel click and collect system with the ability to accept international payments over a very limited sales period. The payment solution is simple and secure with a user-friendly interface. It is characterized by a sophisticated fraud detection module which sets sales limits and blocks transactions as necessary. This has thwarted a number of fraud attempts against the monastery and greatly decreased black market reselling of the beer.
Benoit Boudier, Managing Director, SMB Online Europe at Ingenico, was quoted as saying, “We are extremely proud to be partnering with Westvleteren Abbey. It had a bespoke need as a growing business with its own peak sales times – the payments service the Abbey provides to its customers is integral to the growth and security of the business. So, we stepped in to provide a robust payments solution that supported the business’s growth while ensuring availability during times of greater demand. We’re delighted to have enabled it to continue to serve its customers via a click and collect system while providing the fraud protection it needs.”
Ingenico cooperates with businesses of various sizes to offer payments solutions and international payment capabilities that provide growth opportunities and correspond to the goals and needs that businesses face.
To learn more about Ingenico payment solutions you can consult https://www.ingenico.com/
To learn more about the Abbey and the beer you can visit the website