How small businesses can attract more, happier customers
Enabling contactless payments can mean more customers, happier customers, and reduced counterfeit fraud
We’ve seen the rise — and benefits — of contactless payments in many parts of our lives.
Walk into the local coffee shop and tap to pay. Hit up your local farmers market and tap to pay. The deli or grocery store? You guessed it — tap to pay. For consumers, the benefits are clear: It’s quick, easy, and secure. And small businesses are catching on to the benefits.
In one study, Visa found that 73% of small business owners said new forms of digital payments are fundamental to their growth.1
Here are three reasons small businesses are turning to contactless payments.
1. Attract more customers.
Forty-one percent of consumers said they have abandoned a purchase in a physical store because digital payments weren’t accepted.2 Additionally, a top factor that influences store purchases, aside from price, is the acceptance of digital payments.
Digital payments refer to anything outside of cash, but contactless payments, in particular, are booming in popularity amongst consumers. In the U.S., 34% of all transactions are taps. That’s a 7x increase from just three years ago — and up more than a 10 percentage points from 2022.3
In other words: Your customers are picky about how they pay for purchases and, with the rise of contactless payments, it’s important to give them the ability to pay the way they want to.
2. Provide a more seamless experience.
People are impatient. And tap to pay is fast.
Rather than having to insert or swipe a card, customers can simply hold their contactless payment-enabled card over the payment terminal. This can shave time off transactions both in terms of transaction time and by cutting down on time spent waiting in line. A smoother customer experience makes for happier customers.
Contactless payments also work with enabled mobile devices and smartwatches. That means, if a customer forgets their wallet or if they stop in on a whim, they can easily pay for their purchase with their device. And paying by device can eliminate the need to dig through purses and wallets — another time saver.
3. Amp up security.
When your customers swipe a card with a magnetic strip, their information can be stolen with a skimming device. But when customers tap to pay, a one-time, transaction-specific code is generated. This code and the customer’s account number get transmitted — but not other crucial information, like their name, billing address or verification code.
Because of this, even if someone were to get their hands on your payment information, they couldn’t make a transaction without the card (or your device, which can have even more added security, like Face ID).
All of this together helps contactless payments reduce counterfeit fraud. As a small business, you want customers to feel safe spending their money with you. This helps.
To find the right digital solutions for your small business, check out Contactless Payments for Merchants.
1 https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/blogs/visa-back-to-business-study-2022-outlook-jan22.pdf
2 https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/blogs/visa-back-to-business-study-2022-outlook-jan22.pdf