Why should I use contactless payments in my business?
As consumers continue to move to contactless payments, is your business keeping up?
More than a quarter of cash machines in the UK now add a fee to withdraw money from an account. In 2019 alone, consumers were charged around £104 million to access their own money, up from £75 million in 2018, according to research by consumer group Which.
As a business owner, how does this affect you and your decision whether or not to start accepting contactless payments?
Consumers who face the choice of being charged to withdraw their own money, or using their contactless card to pay, are increasingly likely to choose the second option - and they’ll expect you to be able to accept their payment.
In this blog we’ll cover the main reasons why you should use a contactless payment machine in your business, and highlight the struggles you could face if you don’t.
Customers expect contactless payments
You’ve heard that the customer is always right.
When it comes to a shopper handing their hard-earned money over to you, why limit yourself by denying them the means of paying using their card?
One in five customers no longer carry cash (according to a study by First Bus) because they prefer to use contactless cards or other mobile payment options.
If you’re not able to accept these payments, you’re creating a barrier to sales for a large number of potential customers.
Cash is less convenient
If your business only accepts cash payments, we challenge you to add up how long customers are kept waiting in a queue while cash and change is counted out.
Add this to the time you spend at the end of the day cashing up the money in your till and checking it against receipts.
Seems like a long time, right?
Contactless payments allow businesses to maximise their time and profits.
Every contactless payment is completed and authorised in seconds, so you can keep queues moving and serve more customers during the day. Plus, you can
save time at the end of the day because your contactless payments are automatically recorded with a transparent audit trail.
Improved productivity and the opportunity to make more sales, what could be better?
You can be more flexible
It’s become increasingly common for businesses such as restaurants to take card payments at the table. This provides better customer experience, no need to queue at a till or wait for your cash payment to be processed and your change brought back.
Using portable and mobile contactless payment machines allows your business to be more flexible with how you accept payments.
Instead of making customers take purchases to fixed tills where they have to wait, contactless card terminals mean that you can take their payment anywhere in the store, creating and making the payment process more convenient for them.
It’s also cheaper to bring in mobile payment machines than it is to bring in multiple fixed point till machines.
Contactless payments are more secure
In 2019 alone, £9.8 million of counterfeit bank notes were taken out of circulation, according to The Bank of England.That’s a huge sum of money that businesses can’t get back.
Sticking to a cash-only payment policy increases your risk of fraudulent money entering your business. Accepting them is easy, and once it’s discovered you’re unlikely to receive the money, or product you provided, back.
Accepting contactless payments allows you to rest easy. Contactless card machines have robust security protocols in place, and as they automatically create audit trails of the payments you’ve received, you can easily keep track of your transactions.
Increase your sales
If you don’t accept cards and contactless payments, your customers are limited to spending only the cash they have on them in your store.
With the contactless limit rising to £45 in April 2020, shoppers now have more opportunity to increase their average transaction value when paying using contactless cards and devices.
Research has proven that customers who use contactless card payments are far more likely to increase their transaction value as they are more likely to make additional ‘impulse’ purchases while shopping.
More than one in 10 consumers (12%) said using contactless payments had increased their number of impulse purchases per shop, according to a survey by
GoCompare.
Give your customers the ability to buy what they want, when they want it, with a contactless card machine.
COVID-19 has changed payment habits
We’re sure that, by now, you’re tired of being told that the COVID-19 pandemic has created a new normal, changing the way that businesses work.
Contactless payments have become more popular in the past few months; as they’re safe, speedy and hygienic. They are the perfect payment option when
maintaining social distancing, recommended by the government and the World Health Organisation.
But the fact is, while the pandemic has accelerated the use of contactless payments, their use was on the increase already.
As contactless and digital payment methods are becoming more widely used, it’s important for retailers to adapt. Your business needs to take action and upgrade your payment system to use contactless payment machines, making it easier and more convenient for your customers.
Want more information about contactless payments and how they can help your business?
Read our detailed guide to discover how contactless payments work, how they’re safe and secure and how they can help businesses of all sizes grow.
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