- Five minutes read
Combating COVID-19: Contactless payments on the doorstep
Enabling your customers to pay using a contactless card or mobile wallet on their doorstep for deliveries or appointments is one way to protect them and your sales during COVID-19.
In the first two article in this series, we’ve talked about the need for small businesses to quickly pivot their models to protect their sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, through moving their checkout online, and enabling customers to order products ahead of collection/delivery and scheduling appointments.
A third consideration for business must be how COVID-19 is impacting consumers’ preferred payment methods.
Moving away from cash
One of the most significant impacts COVID-19 has had on payments is a rejection of cash. Globally, a lack of accessibility to cash (due to travel restrictions) and a reluctance to use cash due to a concern about its potential to transmit disease has meant a surge in contactless payment methods. Card terminals have also been identified as a potential transmitter of COVID-19, and as such are being rejected by many consumers.
In countries such as the UK where contactless adoption is already widespread, the contactless card payment limit is being raised to enable even more payments to be made without requiring physical contact with either currency or a payment terminal.
Historically the US has lagged behind other countries in adopting contactless payments, but industry commentators are suggesting the COVID-19 pandemic may be the tipping point for many consumers to fully embrace contactless payment methods, and in particular mobile wallets.
For SMBs, embracing this shift is an essential way to pivot the business model immediately. This is particularly relevant for businesses that are also pivoting their operations by taking products or services to customers’ home for the first time.
Taking the POS terminal to the customer expands the potential to do business during COVID-19 significantly for businesses across multiple sectors; a portable POS terminal with the flexibility to offer contactless payments as well satisfies a immediately growing requirement of customers, and also taps into a future a future payment trend.
Integrating Paysafe MobilePay
Paysafe offers businesses that want to take payments on the doorstep a compact and versatile solution. Merchants download a native mobile app (iOS and Android compatible) onto a smartphone or tablet which then acts as a portable POS in tandem with an EMV and NFC enabled card reader. So customers can make card payments either via chip and pin authorisation, or via contactless. Receipts are then generated digitally and can sent to the customer via SMS or email.
Importantly the number of payment methods is not limited in any way. If the merchant is still prepared to accept cash or check payments, and the customer wishes to pay by either of those methods, Paysafe MobilePay also has cash and check recording services.
The future of payments is contactless
While it is true that contactless payments are yet to really take off in the US, there is little doubt that the evolving of payments in the US is trending in that direction. COVID-19 may accelerate the adoption rate, but data from other countries indicates that any conversion to contactless cards and mobile wallets will be permanent and not temporary.
According to our research 84% of mobile wallet adopters agree that a mobile wallet is more convenient than cash and 85% predict that the percentage of payments they make with mobile wallets will increase.
And according to another Paysafe research report Lost in Transaction: The future of payments for SMBs also two thirds of small-to-medium-sized businesses in the US and Canada planned to offer contactless card and mobile wallet payment options by the end of 2020.
So it appears that offering contactless payment methods must be case of when and not if for merchants. When viewed in this context, it seems clear that businesses should strongly integrating this now, to pivot the business in reaction to COVID-19 but also to futureproof the business for the long term.
