Given the current COVID-19 situation, we have seen a rise in contactless payments. To prevent the transmission of the virus, consumers are using mobile wallets to reduce contact with credit/debit card processing terminals. Mobile wallets are apps on your phone that store payment information from credit or debit cards that allow you to use your device to make purchases. While Americans have been slow to embrace the mobile wallet, people are becoming more comfortable with the concept of making purchases without the need to carry a plastic credit card. Many customers are now expecting the convenience of paying by phone. Rather than calling a business to supply your credit card over the phone, today pay by phone means holding your phone close to a contactless reader and instantly completing a transaction.
Why You Should Provide Mobile Payments
Implementing contactless payment options in a retail environment can help your business in many ways. Smartphone users don’t need to carry cash, plastic credit cards, gym membership barcode key tags, coupons, or other offers. Those things can all be stored in a mobile wallet on a cell phone, which offers simplicity for the user. Convenience creates a positive experience for your customers, and a positive experience transforms into loyalty.
In general, mobile wallets offer a faster authorization process than chip/EMV cards. This keeps the lines moving and makes transactions super simple and fast. For the customer, it offers more security than using a physical card since the card information cannot be accessed without a phone pass code or thumbprint. And, the obvious benefit of reducing contact with physical card terminals to prevent the spread of the virus. Also, customers always have their phone with themselves. In contrast, there are many times customers do not have cash or a credit card, so you could lose out on an impulse buy.
Get Onboard
While the adoption of mobile wallets has been slower than expected, a 2018 study by Synchrony Bank estimates that sixty percent of all Americans will conduct all transactions using their mobile phones by 2025. Consumers also like the convenience of carrying loyalty cards in their phone that are tied to a payment account. Perhaps the most widely used loyalty app in America is the Starbucks app. It stores conveniently in a mobile wallet, serves as a payment mechanism, and allows coffee drinkers to earn points with every purchase without the hassle of a login, password, or account number to remember. Instantaneous convenience truly does build additional sales. When people don’t have to sign anything for a purchase or count out cash from their wallet, spending money becomes much easier.
Data Use for Marketing
In addition to mobile payments, new mobile tools on the market from companies such as Clover, retailers can capture transaction data to analyze habits, preferences, and even daily purchase rituals. This information can be used to create personalized offers and targeted promotions that are tailored for individual customers. When a customer receives a special offer just for them, 70% of recipients are moved to claim the offer.
How to Implement
Most payment processors have access to contactless technology (mobile payments). There are a variety of devices and solutions that enable businesses to accept mobile payments; physical retail terminals, point of sale devices, mobile readers, and more. If you are a business that interacts with customers face to face, you should evaluate what it would take to get setup with mobile payments. You can reach out to your account manager at Remedy and we would be happy to evaluate your business and the available remedies.
Remedy is powered by Chosen Payments whom is a registered ISO and FSP of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Concord, CA and BBVA USA, Birmingham, AL., and Elavon, Inc., N.A., Atlanta, Georgia, and Evolve Bank & Trust; Memphis, TN., and Merrick Bank, N.A., Draper, UT.