cashless payments
Cashless payment options deliver more than simply convenience
as we move towards a cashless society
By Nayax – www.nayax.com
Barely a day goes by without an
announcement from a mobile operator,
banking institution or country focusing
on the trend towards contactless
payments. This trend has already
gained momentum with operators
and merchants. Sooner, rather than
later, it must be fully embraced by all
automated devices, as it’s only a matter
of time until consumers fully take up
cashless payments and no longer carry
cash; turning to their mobile phones
and credit/debit/prepaid and other
cards for making payments.
In order to not lose any sales
opportunities, it’s critical that kiosk
operators ensure that their devices
accept cashless payments. And while
it’s clear that the need is there, the
solution might not be. The ideal thing to
do is to find a supplier that incorporates
hardware, software, integration and
back end operations, such as payment
facilitator, into one offering. This
ensures that the hardware and software
seamlessly communicate, eliminating any
potential integration problems. Looking
for a plug and play system eliminates
problems and wasted downtime,
allowing your device to quickly start
communicating, via telemetry, data on
sales and productivity reports.
You’ll also want to find a supplier
who can handle the back end of your
payments and all the bank transactions
involved with cashless payments.
Some companies act as the merchant
account for you, providing you with
timely, monthly payments, easing your
paperwork and business activities.
Cashless payments
When adding the option of paying via
cashless methods to your device, you
need to provide the most popular
payment solutions. These include:
transactions made with credit cards,
debit cards, payments by SMS, as well
as mobile payments via applications like
Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay,
Google Wallet, and other Wallet apps.
Even the ability to allow transactions
that are not available yet in your country
but popular in others is helpful – for
example, WeChat Pay and Ali Pay are
used by millions of users in China –
having the option to pay via these
methods opens up your kiosk to a wider
audience.
In addition, by accepting prepaid
cards (i.e. employee badges or key fobs,
student IDs, etc.) such as those used in
closed environments like hospitals or
universities, your kiosks can be easily
and profitably installed in any location.
Prepaid cards can open new avenues of
marketing for operators, allowing them
to create promotions, provide discount
pricing for users and regular pricing
for visitors, and enhance customer
engagement. When looking for a solution
with prepaid card payments it’s helpful
to find one that allows you and/or the
facility manager to create and authorise
prepaid cards quickly and painlessly.
Communicating with devices
The front end of a cashless solution
is only the first link in the chain. In
addition to the customer-facing payment
solution, operators need a telemetry
system offering machine-to-machine
communication that will monitor devices
in real time with continuously updated
information on all aspects of operation.
You want a solution that offers seamless
communication using the industry’s most
accepted and advanced protocols.
This communication needs to go both
ways – not only receiving data from the
machine, but also giving you the option
to update the device remotely whether it
be standard software updates or setting
pricing. This leads to increased produc-
tivity on your part, ensuring you don’t
have to travel to each individual kiosk.
Business decisions
The final link in the chain is making use
of all the retrieved information that
operators and facility managers can
receive regarding their operations. These
in-depth details give all stakeholders
the opportunity to plan and run their
operations in the most cost-effective
manner possible. Information that’s
most useful includes: sales summaries
(monitoring transitions in real time), sales
reports and cash accountability (with
the ability to track both cashless and
cash income). The ability to get a global
picture of operations, as well as drill
down to individual devices, lets operators
take educated business decisions
regarding the future.
Adding cashless payment options
delivers more than convenience to
customers – it also provides operators
with extra security. With a visible
cashless mechanism applied to your
device, a clear signal is sent to vandals
that your devices don’t have cash, so
you can minimise theft and vandalism,
especially if your kiosk is in an
unpopulated area.
To save time and money, you need
to find a one-stop shop. This will allow
you to avoid integration problems
that could develop when working with
multiple suppliers, due to the assurance
that all elements of their solution are
compatible with each other. n
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