Businesses should adopt contactless payments
As we are quickly becoming a cashless society, many consumers around the world are embracing new technologies to make fast and secure payments. While chip and pin have ruled card payment technologies for the past decade, they are now being displaced by new faster and more secure technology. Contactless payment systems allow users to make payments without having to input their PIN. They simply have to place their card near the card reader or set up their smartphone to make payments through a smart wallet such as Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Contactless payments have become increasingly popular, and it is estimated that around 8 in 10 transactions are contactless. So if you haven’t already deployed contactless payments in your business, you need to embrace this new technology sooner rather than later. The good news is that accepting contactless payment is easier than you think. In this guide, we are going to look at what benefits contactless payment offers, and how you can quickly and easily deploy this technology in your business.
What is a contactless payment?
Contactless payments, also known as tap-to-pay, allow users to buy items without having to physically insert their debit/credit card into a card reader or enter their PIN. There are two ways consumers can use contactless payments: they can either use a debit/credit card authorised for contactless payments, issued by their bank. Or alternatively, they can set up their smartphone to make payments through a smart wallet such as Apple Pay or Google Pay. This new technology is great for a number of reasons, allowing customers to checkout and purchase their essentials much faster. While lost cards are a common mistake that many people make, you may question the safety of contactless payments. To prevent misuse of stolen cards contactless payments are currently limited to £100 per transaction. If you spend more than this in a single transaction you will need to physically enter your PIN into the terminal- making contactless payment a far more secure and safe way of purchasing things.
How does contactless payment work?
To make a payment using contactless technology, the consumer needs a card that contains a contactless chip. This emits radio waves which are transmitted using an aerial built into the card itself- most new cards issued have contactless technology built in. To pay for something the consumer needs to place their debit/credit card close to the payment terminal. Once the card and terminal are around 2 to 5 centimetres apart they share data using secure Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.
The payment terminal then tells the card how much to pay and the card transmits payment details from the user’s bank account- which will then indicate whether the transaction has been successful. A red cross indicates payment has failed and the user needs to try again or use a different card. A successful transaction will be indicated with a green tick. These symbols are usually accompanied by beeps to help people with poor vision understand whether their transaction has been successful or not.
Why your business needs to adopt contactless payments
Contactless payments offer several benefits over Chip and PIN and cash transactions. Firstly, the benefit of a faster transaction is without a doubt the biggest advantage of this new technology, as compared to other conventional payment methods, customers don’t have to spend as much time waiting at the checkouts- which can also lead to more sales as people have a better customer experience both in-store and online. What’s more, is that business owners and managers can then reduce the number of staff on checkout duties and redeploy them elsewhere.
With hygiene now being more important than ever, recent regulations meant that many businesses had to disinfect the card terminal between each transaction. Thanks to contactless payments, the terminal doesn’t have to be cleaned as often due to customers not requiring to touch any equipment, making this option far safer and hygienic for everyone. This method is also far more secure than any other, as it means customers no longer have to carry cash, even for smaller transactions. If a customer uses a smartphone to make their contactless payments, they won’t even be required to carry their credit or debit cards easier- making life at the checkout, far easier.
The easy way to deploy contactless payments
Now you know the benefits of accepting contactless payments in your business. How do you go about accepting contactless payments? The good news is that deploying contactless today is easier than ever before. With merchant providers like Independent Merchant Services, there are a range of EPoS solutions available that can be tailored to the needs of your business. Their range includes specialist retail and hospitality solutions that can be scaled from a single to multi-outlet operation.
All EPoS systems are easy to install and allow you to make contactless payments without further investment in card terminals. What’s more, is that they can also provide you with cost-effective merchant services, virtual services and secure payment gateways if required. Transform your business checkout today and make each transaction an easy and successful one with contactless payments!
