Overall contactless payments are on the rise and also due to the pandemic in 2020 it boosted the double-digit growth rate. We can also see a significant shift of customers wanting to do contactless payments for every small to a big transaction. When contactless payments are implemented in the retail outlets they get a huge opportunity to serve a lot of customers during peak hours. Contactless payments earlier which was a nice thing to have has gone from one of the preferred ways of completing the money transactions.
What is a contactless payment?
Contactless payments are the type of transaction that is done cashless or the physical swiping of the cards like credit or debit cards. The customer can easily do the payments just by tapping the contactless card and or by QR code scanner. It only takes a few seconds to complete the whole transaction and that too in a safe, convenient, secure, and touch-free way.
The contactless payments can be done via secure contactless systems such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, WhatsApp Payments, and any other mobile application that supports contactless payments.
How Retailers Can Move to Contactless Payments?
The pandemic brought a massive shift towards contactless payments due to the physical distancing and people started getting comfortable with tap-to-tap transactions and contactless payments. There are so many devices we can use to do the payments such as POS terminals, QR code scanners, mobile banking, and many more. Apple Pay is one of the popular examples of contactless payments. Google pay also stores debit and credit card details on your mobile phone and is also a convenient way to do payments.
WhatsApp has also started with the WhatsApp for Payments which is an intuitive user-friendly feature which is in the WhatsApp app itself. Route Mobile’s OmniCent: Payment as a Service is an easy-to-use, instant payment solution powered by AI with cross-platform compatibility. QR codes can also be installed in the retail store so that whenever the customer buys something and wants to pay they can just scan the code from the mobile app and do the payment. QR codes are quite popular and continue to be an excellent way for merchants to accept payments without card payments.
Also Read: WhatsApp API: The Ultimate Guide to WhatsApp Business API 2022
Is your traditional supermarket ahead with online contactless payments and wish to give a frictionless online grocery shopping journey?
Talk with our experts NOW!Benefits of Contactless Payments for Retailers-
Enhanced Integration Opportunities-
Contactless payments open up a multitude of integration opportunities for mobile marketing. The retailers get an opportunity to send loyalty programs such as couponing and location-based marketing. When you send coupons to the customers they are more likely to visit your retail store more frequently and will become regular customers. Location-based push notifications to gain more local customers.
Minimal Hardware Costs-
The traditional payment methods require more money and also the physical maintenance of the payment terminals. The implementation of mobile wallets does not require as much money as it’s required in traditional retail payments. There will be no more need of purchasing the new payment hardware device and no physical maintenance of workstations.
Benefits of Contactless Payments for Customers-
Secure Transactions-
The main benefit of contactless payments is the security they provide and when the customer does the transaction from their own mobile phones then they are less risky. The data is transferred from the customer’s mobile device directly to the merchant’s system which ensures that all the payments are done securely.
Fasten up the payments-
If there is a rush in the retail store then it would take much more time to complete the payment transaction. But when the payment is done via QR code scanner or with any mobile wallets it will conveniently reduce the time taken and instantly fasten up the payments. It not only benefits the customers but also helps retailers as they can attend to a lot more customers during the speculated period of time.
Excellent Customer Experience-
Customers no longer have to wait for the long payment queues to reduce abandonment rates. It’s a win-win situation for both customers as well as retailers, as it just takes around 15-20 seconds for a customer to complete the transaction and the customer is out of the retail store.
What is the future of contactless payments in the retail industry?
Today’s customer is not ready to waste their time standing in the long queue to make the payments and wants to check out faster from the stores. So contactless payments provide a faster checkout with a lot of convenience and safety in every transaction a customer does. This is the right time to invest in contactless payments as it’s going to be the future not only in the retail industry but also in many other industries.
One thing is also sure that the contactless payments are here to stay and it’s a must-have for retailers to smoothen the overall customer experience.
The retailers who want to stay ahead of the curve need to start investing in contactless payments. Contactless payments provide us with flexibility, convenience and make your transactions more seamless, it’s no longer just nice to have but it’s the future of the retail industry.
Conclusion-
The pandemic has changed consumer behavior and the way they used to shop offline and all traditional supermarkets need to be bolder in online retailing and they should make it a priority. Retailers should be focusing on investing in digital transformation and also in contactless payments.
With proper efforts being implemented the traditional supermarkets will head towards mobile app experiences and will overall enhance customer experience. If you have a retail business and want to switch to contactless payments, connect with one of our experts. They will help you out with our solutions.