Skip was built to help people skip the queue. Growth meant making every second count.
When Skip started 14 years ago, the problem it set out to solve was simple: people hate waiting.
In Melbourne especially, where coffee is practically a religion, standing in line for something you order every day felt like an obvious friction point.
So, the team did what many product teams claim to do, but few actually commit to. They went out and asked people what annoyed them. They tested ideas in the real world and watched how people behaved.
One early prototype was brilliantly scrappy. A poster invited people to text their coffee orders. Two staff members stood nearby with a prepaid phone, ran the order to the counter, and observed what happened next.
Before the app existed in any polished form, the team was already testing the experience it wanted to create. That mindset still defines the business today.
From coffee queues to a national platform
Skip began by helping people order coffee ahead and pick it up without the wait. Over time, that expanded into food, events, catering and school lunches.
Today, Skip serves over 1.3 million users and processes more than 35 million orders, working with everyone from independent cafés to Qantas lounges across Australia.
That range matters. No two hospitality environments are the same, and Skip wasn’t built for large chains with dedicated IT teams. It was built for everyone; from single-site operators to national brands.
Growth hasn’t meant forcing customers into one model. It has meant evolving the product to suit different workflows, expectations and business needs.
Staying ahead means never standing still
“You always have to keep evolving,” says CEO Bill Bizos. “If something feels fast today, in two years it won’t.”
That mindset matters when your customers are running live environments. There’s no buffer. The product has to be fast, simple and reliable.
As demand surged, onboarding speed became critical. Skip responded by accelerating product development: introducing QR ordering, reducing steps at checkout, and streamlining the experience end to end.
As volumes grew, payments became just as important as ordering.
Why Skip chose Fat Zebra
Skip partnered with Fat Zebra around seven years ago, when it needed more flexibility from its payments infrastructure.
As an Australian business, local support and market understanding mattered. So did having a partner that operates like Skip does: with real people and real relationships.
Over time, that relationship has become a true working partnership. Teams collaborate closely, move quickly, and bring new capabilities to market together, including early adoption of Mastercard Click to Pay.
Why payments matter in the Skip experience
For Skip, payments are part of the experience, not a background function.
Customers expect checkout to feel as seamless as ordering. That means speed, flexibility and security working together.
Skip has introduced multiple digital wallets across web and native apps, enabling frictionless guest checkout and supporting a shift away from card-on-file payments. Today, three major wallets are driving growing adoption and giving customers more choice.
Behind the scenes, the focus has also been on performance and efficiency. Least cost routing helps reduce debit transaction costs, while 3D Secure (3DS) strengthens fraud control without adding friction.
Fat Zebra has also enabled next-day (T+1) settlement to merchant partners via Direct Entry APIs, helping venues access funds faster and manage cash flow.
For Skip, the right payments partner isn’t just one that works today. It’s one that evolves with them.
A shared mindset
Progress is never finished.
That philosophy shapes Skip’s product, its support model, and its approach to growth – reflected in a 100% customer satisfaction score in February.
It’s also what makes the partnership with Fat Zebra work. Both businesses focus on solving problems early and improving experiences before customers notice the friction.
What’s next for Skip
Skip’s next phase includes continued growth in cafés, alongside expansion into school lunches and catering.
The opportunity remains the same: help merchants serve customers more efficiently, while creating a smoother experience for the people using the app.
It started with skipping the queue, but it’s really about something bigger. It’s about removing friction wherever it appears and recognising that even small moments shape whether someone comes back.
