All merchants, no matter their size or industry, now face enormously challenging times. Companies across the globe are adapting to changes in government policy, transitioning from brick-and-mortar to online, navigating unpredictable consumer demand, and much more. At Poynt, they are committed to helping our customers ride out this storm and roll with these changes that […]

Don’t miss another episode of Truth In Data! Data for today’s episode is provided by Mercator Advisory Group’s report – U.S. Small Businesses are Reeling as a Result of COVID-19 Small Business Payment Methods Are Changing: Business credit cards are still the dominant transaction type (56%), but a host of transaction types are gaining popularity. Small businesses’ […]

A study by Red Egg Marketing reveals that as much as 82% of shoppers will pay more to support small businesses. Revealing shoppers’ motivation to support local businesses in the wake of COVID-19. A whopping 82.76 % of shoppers say they would rather support a local business than a large corporation. With eight out of 10 of them willing […]

Three months ago, we were cranking out calls, traveling to meet clients, and shaking hands with colleagues. Now, we are facing a dramatic change that we have never experienced before.  Over the past week, the Outreach company has seen a dramatic increase in customers asking for guidance on how to adapt their existing strategy to […]

It is unsurprising to discover that stay at home orders and social distancing is having a significant impact on consumers’ confidence in eCommerce. Overall, 42% of customers are shopping online much more because they cannot or will not buy in physical stores. A third of customers (33%) say that they are shopping online for specific […]

Are Your Merchants Accepting Cashless Payment?

We are witnessing a surge across the payments industry, accelerating a transition towards cashless. The research reveals that, as more people are informed of the risks of exchanging cash and touching credit-card terminals, cashless technology will continue to storm into the mainstream of America.

The Expedited Transition To Cashless Payment

We know due to Covid-19, the use of contactless mobile payments is growing. The convenience of a pure contactless bank card combined with a rise in retailers that allow contactless payments has driven a change in consumer habits over the past years.

In all three countries recently surveyed, more than half of respondents (63% in France, 52% in Germany, and 56% in the UK) indicated that they now use contactless payment methods more regularly than before the Covid-19 crisis. And why? Due to the risk of infection and to help contain the virus. This represents a significant change inhabits, and it is easy to understand the reason. Even with retailers going to extra lengths to restrict the spread of the virus, such as limiting the number of customers allowed into their stores at any one time and more regular store cleaning, considerable risks are still present when exchanging cash or touching payment keypads.

It appears that Covid-19 will be the unlikely catalyst for advancing and driving our transition towards cashless payments faster than anyone could have predicted.

For more information on contactless devices for your merchants
contact

Steve Feldshuh VP of Strategic Sales
steve@btrpay.com
(877) 423-8637

What’s Next For The Payments Industry?

2019 was an impressive year for the payments industry; tech innovation and the changing perspectives and expectations of customers and businesses continue to reshape the aspect of both physical and digital commerce. Due to the recent pandemic, we expect the evolution of payment services to continue; some of the key trends that emerged last year will become even more prominent. We predict the following will play a significant part in determining the future of payments in 2020.

NFC /Contactless Payment

Coming into 2019, the US market was years behind many nations in the world in the adoption of contactless (NFC enabled) debit and credit cards. There is a collective effort on the part of consumers and banks to correct this due to COVID-19; Visa is predicting that over 100 million NFC enabled cards will be in circulation in the US by the end of 2020.
In addition to the release of contactless cards, one needle-mover may be the growth of the Visa Ready for Transit program. In the UK, it was the introduction of contactless payments to the London Underground that sparked a notable increase in adoption; and over three million contactless payments have been made since the contactless payments pilot was started on many subway services in New York in June 2019. The number of routes will increase in New York as well as launching in San Francisco and Boston in 2020. Merchants are ready for the change, and the consumers are demanding it. Contactless payment is here to stay as we are fully aware of how COVID-19 spreads.

The constant rise of omnichannel payments

As small businesses try to keep up with their online competitors, they are coming under an increased requirement to deliver the same user experience customers receive online and at the checkout, this means offering the same breadth of payment options, and user experience.
This is one reason that we will continue to see more omnichannel payment initiatives launching in the coming months. Another reason is that consumer purchasing habits are changing, preferring a more blended experience of online and offline interactions. Keeping cards on file, the growth of mobile payments, and improvement in mPOS technology payments are continuing to merge.

Consumers demand invisible payments.

Offline, consumers are frequently comfortable with the concept of invisible payments. Apps such as Uber, where a consumer receives an experience and can walk away without having to worry about payment, receipts, tips, and change, have redefined best-practice for seamless payments. Similarly to Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Go continues to grab the notice of shoppers; 16 stores are now open in the US, and Amazon has said that there will be a massive scale expansion in 2020. And several start-ups are replicating the Amazon model.
As these types of payments become more commonplace in 2020, consumers will increasingly demand this exciting new way to pay. Expect the number of real-world retailers and assistance providers looking to imitate this model to increase substantially in the next 12 months.

Moving beyond two-factor authentication

The deadline for implementing Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) has been pushed to December 2020, but that has not prevented biometric authentication for payments from growing in importance. In Lost in Transaction: The end of risk? 48% of consumers told us that they had authenticated a payment using fingerprint, facial recognition, or voice-activated technology. Among consumers aged 18-24, adoption rates are significantly higher (69%). But this isn’t the end of the online payment authentication course. As users continue to demand more security and, at the same time, frequently frictionless checkouts, technologies that leverage other more passive authentication factors such a location, time of transaction, and even predicted behavior will come to the fore. And there will be even more exciting developments in the next year on top of these, but surely, this gives you a taste of what we’re expecting to see take the payments world by storm in the next 12 months.

For more information on NFC/Contactless secure devices that are ready for the future, contact us at 877-423-8637

These days, many ISO Agents are more comfortable sending emails than picking up their phones. But, before moving ahead, it’s worth recognizing whether the phone is even the best method to follow up with leads today. A recent study by sales pro Marc Wayshak shows the phone is still the best selling tool, with 41.2% of respondents […]

Ecommerce is quickly becoming the shopping method for a completely new generation of customers. In 2018, almost 40% of holiday sales were made online, and retail stores all over the world are feeling the pressure of online competitors from giants like Amazon to the smallest mom-and-pop websites. As a result, the opportunity for an ISO Agent to […]

When a merchant signs on with an Agent, their payments are processed through whichever processor the ISO is representing, and the Agent, in turn, earns a small commission on each transaction. Those commissions are known as residuals; as a result, the commissions earned on each transaction are tiny percentages, they can add up over thousands or […]