Contactless payments: Revolutionizing Retail Experience
Retailers can benefit immensely from offering contactless payments to their customers, which is making the process of purchasing and paying for goods or services faster, expedient and secure for both retailers and customers. Experts clearly notice there are numerous advantages of contactless payments when provided in a proper way. Customers are short on time and they want to experience the satisfaction of shopping in less time, hence contactless payments have become the answer.
- Enhanced Customer Experience
Owing to faster transactions the customers can save time and do other chores instead of waiting in queues for payment. And since in the majority of contactless transactions there is no verification or requirement to print out a receipt on authorization apart from bigger sums customers enjoy the process. This obviously results in increased returns and lesser abandoned sales.
- There may be times when customers are short on cash, but these contactless payments assist the shoppers by giving them the ease to pay through their devices which could be connected to their cards or accounts. Owing to this convenience there will be increased footfall in retail stores.
- Cost Reduction
The retailers will not be needing staffs at the checkout counters and can instead use this workforce in some other department, increasing staff productivity. The retailers can utilize the team in stocking up inventory or checking out the latest goods to offer to the customers.
- Risk Reduction
Once there is less cash to handle there are fewer chances of theft or fraud as the banks will be providing transparency to each of their customers. Also as with all card payments, the risks to the retailer are lower than other payment types for many reasons including the existence of an audit trail and assured payments by the customer.
- Customers can also benefit in several ways from being able to use contactless payments as there is ease of usage instead of swiping a card they wave their card in the proximity of the reader and the payment is made without any hassle of standing in a queue or waiting for entering pin codes.
- Safety and Security
The chip technology that is being used by contactless payments offers protection through encryption and dynamic data technologies, are much safer and secure than other forms of payments. Also, there are fewer chances that the card will be lost or forgotten during the transaction, as it will not leave the customer’s sight or will not be required at all. The system also reduces the opportunity for stealing the card’s magnetic-stripe data through or fraudulently procuring card data with a hand-held electronic device.
- The Flexibility of Alternate Form Factors
Contactless payment technology does not have to be delivered through conventional plastic cards. Contactless technology is more and more obtainable to consumers in other forms which include loyalty cards, coupons, mobile wallets that are turning phones into payment devices, in turn, reducing the requirement to carry cash.
- Retailers Advantage
The retailers gain operational efficiency as contactless transactions are faster than both cash and conventional card transactions. This also results in shorter queues, increased revenue, and enhanced customer satisfaction. This can also lead to the reduction in workforce needed during peak hours because of the usage of point-of-use technology.
Retailers that accept contactless payments are particularly well-positioned to profit from the materialization of mobile phone-based payments, which are forecasted to culminate into the most popular payment choice among the millennials. The capability to accept mobile phone-based contactless payments begins up a massive amount of marketing opportunities by improving combination with existing loyalty programmes, as well as enhancing the chance to employ personalized mobile couponing and location-based marketing to aim consumers within or nearby a retail location.
