No cash handling or pin numbers with contactless payments

More and more cards and phones these days are fitted with contactless payment technology, and if you’ve used it already, you’ll know how quick and easy it is to pay for small purchases. No messing around with pin numbers or fiddling with cash – just wave the card and you’re done.

More and more big UK companies are installing contactless terminals, and the technology is likely to get a big boost from September 2014 as Transport for London introduce the option for commuters to pay for travel with their contactless bank card.

You don’t have to be a big chain store to offer contactless payment to your customers, and it’s an ideal solution for any business that needs to serve people in a hurry, such as coffee bars and sandwich sellers.

Contactless transactions are capped at £20 and the UK Card Association reported in May 2014 that the average spend on contactless was £6.60, mostly on debit cards (88%).

Benefits of contactless payments

• Faster payment processing means shorter queues and shorter queues mean more business.
• Less cash to handle, reducing the time and cost of cash handling and lowering the risk of theft.
• A full audit trail for more of your transactions.
• Customers increasingly expect to pay by contactless card.

Making the switch

• Check first to see whether your existing terminals are already capable of supporting contactless, then contact your terminal equipment supplier or merchant services provider to find out about how to upgrade.
• Promote your new contactless terminals with decals and signs.
• Train your staff to handle contactless payments and to answer customer questions.
• Create incentives for your staff so that they actively encourage your customers to give it a go.

For more statistics and useful advice about contactless, we recommend this paper from Worldpay. 

Download: Worldpay Small Business Guide - Contactless made easy