5 Payment Solutions to Elevate Your Business

Payment Solutions for all businesses

From portable POS systems that allow emerging contactless payments to cash discount programs that eliminate processing fees, the world of electronic payments is changing fast with new forms of payments and merchant plans.

With this new reality that Covid maybe here to stay and people may just have to get used to living with it, contactless payment solutions have been on the rise and continue to grow strongly after 2020.

In 2020, adoption of digital payments increased as a whole and according to the World Payments Report by Capgemini, grew by an astonishing 53%. Customers have also been trying new forms of payments with 35% adding a card to a digital wallet and 27% using QR code payments.

That’s why it’s important to invest in the most up-to-date contactless payment systems for your customers.Let’s look at a few modern payment trends that are more pertinent than ever and how they can help you advance your business moving into 2022.

1. Cash Discount Program

While we know that accepting credit cards leads to an increase in sales, the cost to process them is expensive and has steadily been rising over the years. Fees for ecommerce transactions have also been increasing due to the higher risk of fraud over payments made on the internet.

This rising price to process credit cards has forced many small business owners to find less expensive ways to process. One fairly new way to achieve this is to pass some or all of these fees back to the customers who choose to use credit cards and offer a cash discount to customers who pay with cash or debit cards. This method is called a cash discount program.

The main benefit, of course, is eliminating card-processing fees from credit cards you’ve accepted. However, if you’ve already priced your products or services to cover the card processing fees, this program might not be for you, especially if you’ve already printed signage and marketing materials with that pricing.

Since the cash discount encourages cash instead of debit or credit cards there’s a reduction of fraud exposure and the time between the sale and access to funds is none. Another benefit of the program is it reduces the number of chargebacks which helps avoid expensive fees.

Cash discounting is usually more common in the services industries rather than traditional retail businesses and generally works best for businesses that already have a low credit card usage rate. Just be aware that if your customers already tend not to use their credit cards, you won’t save much money by implementing the program.

You won’t need any special type of hardware to run a cash discount program. Most all credit card terminals, card readers, and POS systems can be set to automatically apply a cash discount when cash is used.

If you’re using a clover device, you would just need to download the cash discounting app from the Clover Marketplace. The only main requirement is to post signage in your store.

Digital Wallets & QR Codes

2. Online Ordering

Arguably the biggest payment trend coming out of 2020 and 2021 has been more customers choosing to order online vs going to a physical store. This acceleration in online ordering is only going to continue with more than 46 million customers choosing to shop online.

More online shopping significantly increases the importance of having a well-built ecommerce site with the ability for customers to easily pay with a credit card online. Making sure that customers can quickly place an order with ease is crucial when it comes to their online experience and being able to capture the most online transactions.

3.Digital Wallets

One of the biggest trends in the way consumers make payments in recent years has been digital wallets or E-wallets. Digital wallets are one of the easiest ways to make payments with security and convenience. Digital wallets work with POS terminals by using tap and go functionality rather than handing over or inserting a credit or debit card. This allows customers to use their smart phones as a form of contactless payment. Having the ability to take digital wallet payments adds a new level of convenience, most likely customers will always have their cell phone with them but not have their wallet or cash when going to the gym, beach, or park.

4.Customer Behavior Tracking and Engagement

Being able to selectively target different demographics of people and know the behaviors of your customers are important insights to be able to effectively market to them and secure repeat visits to maximize ROI. One way to do this is by having a rewards program where they give you their information and are then able to download an app. Also having a system that tracks their behavior when they log into the wifi network in the store can help get consumer behavior information as well.

These methods allow you to gain valuable insights and engage with each segment of your customers through email and SMS marketing efforts. Loyalty programs with apps and wifi marketing with tracking can help businesses retain their customers and increase transactions to maximize every potential revenue making opportunity.

5. QR Codes

Another trend that has been steadily increasing is the use of QR codes. A QR code is a type of matrix barcode invented in 1994. The barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about the item it’s on.

QR codes often contain data for a locator, identifier, or tracker that points to a website or application, however over the past decade marketers have used it more and more to promote products and more recently, allow customers to make purchases. Now over 11 million house holds will scan a QR code by the end of 2021. Trillions of dollars’ worth of transactions happen through QR code payments every year.

There are two main factors that will lead to an inevitable increase in QR code usage: increased access to smartphone devices and high-speed internet. According to Juniper Research, about 90% of the world's population will have high-speed internet accessible beyond 2021.

If you want to capture the most sales and create a better experience for your customers, these are some of the payment trends to keep a close eye on and implement in your business. Valiant Payments offers the latest POS systems and payment so you can stay ahead of the game and grow your business.

Contact Valiant Payments today to see how you get assistance keeping up with the latest payments, improving your customers experiences, saving on monthly processing fees, and growing your business.