In the beginning, payment was simple. You’d take your items to the checkout counter, pull out some cash, get your change and a receipt, then be on your way.
From contactless credit cards to mobile wallets, people have a lot more options when paying nowadays — and many people have preferences with what payment method they use when shopping in person or online.
The good news? Giving your customers a variety of convenient payment options is both easy to do and comes with a lot of benefits for your business.
Let’s go into some of the most popular payment methods, their benefits, and some payment tips to make shopping at your store easier than ever.
We know what you’re thinking: Why go through all the effort of buying new hardware and updating your systems just to give people a few more ways to pay?
In short, it’s all about convenience. Everyone has their preferred payment methods. Not accepting a customer’s favorite payment option might seem like a minor inconvenience, but it’s enough of one to tempt them to take their business elsewhere next time.
Here are some of the main benefits of offering multiple payment options at your store:
Most importantly, having multiple ways to pay helps you meet customers where they are. The easier it is to pay (and the less customers have to think about it), the more likely they are to come back. A great checkout experience should be invisible.
Related Read: How Does Payment Processing Work? 6 Retail Basics
These days, customers have numerous options when it comes to paying at the store. Here are some of the most popular:
Though not listed above, contactless payments are also worth mentioning as they’re used by over half of all Americans. Contactless payments let customers pay by tapping their phone or card on a compatible card reader.
Big companies like Whole Foods are adding fingerprint and face scanners for payments — but offering more payment options shouldn’t feel like science fiction. Also, these types of technologies aren’t practical to roll out in small, family-owned businesses.
Instead, here are six tips for giving your customers more payment choices without a big investment.
Cash use has dropped over the years, but there are exceptions. Older customers and certain demographics of people still prefer to carry cash. Also, specific types of stores, such as convenience stores, corner shops, or liquor stores, tend to deal with cash more than other businesses.
If a lot of your customers pay in cash, dual pricing gives you a chance to reward them. Since cash payments don’t have fees like credit cards, dual pricing lets you pass those savings onto your customers in the form of a cash discount.
Unlike surcharging, which is illegal in some states, dual pricing is legal across the country. It’s also a great way to give cash-paying customers an incentive to come back to your store.
Systems that support dual pricing let you apply the discount with the click of a button at checkout. To stay compliant, just make sure your listed prices are the higher credit card price and that you advertise the discount at checkout.
Almost 42 million people in the U.S. use SNAP benefits to buy healthy food for their families. Accepting EBT payments is an excellent way for small family-owned grocery stores and corner shops to serve their community.
Unfortunately, accepting EBT payments isn’t always easy.
The key is to use a point of sale (POS) system with integrated EBT payments. These systems allow you to:
One final tip: To offer EBT payments, you’ll also need to apply for an FNS (Food and Nutrition Service) number through the USDA website.
Did you know that over half of grocery store shoppers say faster checkout would improve their attitude towards the store? This isn’t unique to grocery stores, either. Customers might not notice a fast and smooth checkout, but they will definitely notice when it’s slow and outdated.
Contactless payments, either using a card or a mobile device, make payments faster than ever. Most POS systems require no additional software or setup to accept contactless payments, just a compatible card reader.
These days, many card readers come with options for inserting a chip or tap-to-pay. So, you can offer contactless payment without it taking up extra real estate on your counter.
Setting up a customer loyalty program incentivizes customers to keep shopping with you. Getting customers’ contact information is also an effective way to send out tailored offers and marketing.
Earning points can be exciting — but that excitement turns into disappointment quickly if cashing them in slows you down. If a loyalty program is hard to use, customers won’t bother.
Use a POS system with built-in customer loyalty to make applying loyalty discounts easy. An integrated loyalty program lets you:
A loyalty program that’s built into your POS also lets you track loyalty points across sales channels (e.g., in store and online).
Many people prefer one payment method over others — but sometimes people want to split payments up. For example, a customer might:
Train your staff on how to handle split tenders on your POS system. For most POS software, it’s as simple as hitting a button, entering an amount for the first transaction, running the payment method, and then handling the remaining balance as normal.
The goal of offering multiple payment methods is convenience. If other parts of your checkout process are clunky and slow, then all those benefits are lost.
If you sell alcohol, tobacco, or other age-restricted items, manual ID checks can grind checkout to a halt. Use a system that allows cashiers to scan IDs for instant verification.
ID scanners are both faster and safer than manual checks, and 2D barcode scanners can scan both IDs and UPCs. So, if you sell a lot of age-restricted items, ID scanning makes your checkout stress-free.
The goal of offering a variety of payment options is to make things easier for both your customers and employees. If adding an extra payment method means using a separate payment processor, it’s probably not worth the effort.
That’s why it’s important to use a retail POS system that is continually adding new features and popular payment methods. The right technology partner ensures you can keep up with the latest payment preferences and trends without having to pay more money or learn a new system.
But every retailer is different. Check our pricing page to find the right POS system for your industry and budget.