Cashless in Self-service – A way to cater safely

Though the retail and restaurant has taken a hit during most of 2020 because of COVID-19 pandemic, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need a new application of new technology and services. One such novel and needed technology is contactless payment acceptance. In COVID, everyone is leaning on contactless.

Consumers began to take full advantage of these technologies—contactless cards only accounted for 19% of cards in force in 2019 – in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic spurred greater contactless payment use. It’s estimated 52% of cards will have contactless capability by 2021.

When stores are under crucial and lockdown today, merchant owners still want to survive and keep the service to their customers, anything that reduces contact – with each other or any surface – is a good thing. That is self-service applications being adopted to turn to touch-free scenario. We have seen many scenarios apply suitable equipment to achieve the purpose of unattended services, like beverage and snack vending, food order kiosk, car parking, laundry, transportation, gas station, and EV charging. Through many self-service stations, consumers can easily reduce the risk of being infected by the virus, and gradually change the daily habits that they cultivate to solve by themselves.

Operating self-service machines are not causing a disturbance, but how to make a smooth procedure to satisfy customers to complete the orders in the end is the important thing. Contactless/touchless payments are accelerating new acceptance capabilities in the U.S., looking to many markets around the world, contactless was already prevalent and it was dominant payment behavior. Touchless commerce will be an increasingly large component of payment acceptance going forward.

Contactless self-service is simply an integrated contactless payment system that can be installed on a new or existing machine. It allows customers to tap-and-go, which is hassle-free and negates the need to carry or handle cash. It can reduce time spent queuing and allows access to refreshments at any time, whilst also enabling social distancing. It also removes the costs involved with maintaining coin and note acceptors and handling cash, reducing resource requirements. Another benefit for businesses is the transactional data captured, which can ease management the sale and process. Meantime, contactless payment in self-service is compatible with mobile payment apps such as Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay as well as debit and credit contactless cards, making it convenient and user friendly.

Obviously in the foreseeable future, market and application scenarios have changed. New-Normal has affected the lifestyle of people for decades, and made merchants realize that traditional business methods can no longer meet the complex migrations in the future. It does not mean that the store cannot continue to serve customers, but to increase revenue from the new service model, so might just take some adjustments and adaptations to face the needs of post-pandemic sustainable circumstance.