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The Christmas holiday season is well behind us now but there is one major lesson that was learned during this past holiday season: contactless payment options are becoming the dominant payment method by consumers. Merchants have noticed that as well and have begun to change some of the ways that they accept payments. Are you getting on board or are you letting this pass you by? If you are not looking into this you could be making a major mistake.
Contactless Payment Becoming More Popular
Contactless payment options are certainly not new but what has changed in 2018 is that they began to become much more mainstream. New POS terminals capable of accepting not only EMV cards but also contactless payment options using Near Field Communication technology began to dot the commercial spaces of the United States and consumers are very happy about that.
Credit card issuers are also taking notice. It is believed that by next year over 100 million contactless cards will be in use throughout the United States. Combine that with smartphones utilizing digital wallets and this is technology that would potentially be available to every American.
What Separates Contactless Payment
The major draw for contactless payment is speed. A transaction can be completed with just the tap of the card. No more signing a receipt, no more entering a PIN, no more dipping. Tap and the customer is on their way. And this can all be done with similar or even increased security for the transaction for both the merchant and the consumer. It seems like a win/win.
For consumers this past holiday season nearly one third of all transactions anticipated during the shopping season would utilize smart technology like a smartphone according to Payment Week. The technology itself is certainly prevalent, especially with younger shoppers, as an estimated 42% of all consumers in the US have used the technology at least once. That lags far behind other nations like China where 95% of consumers have used the technology. For merchants though there is a major incentive, as in China 84% of consumers were found to be more open to doing business with a merchant that offers mobile payments and 54% said they would spend more money with a merchant who utilized the technology. Why: Speed!
It’s Not the Future, It’s the Present
These new payment methods are not the future, they are here now. They will become the prevalent methods of accepting payment and merchants who do not utilize them will be left behind. While the US may never see China-like levels of acceptance as the younger generations get older and become the dominant consumers these types of payment methods will be expected and not just a convenience.
If you are interested in upgrading your POS terminal to include this technology or want to learn more about this JLE Business Consultants can help. Don’t get left behind. The last thing you want to do is to lose business because your customers can’t pay you for goods or services.
