As businesses have finally begun to recover from COVID-19 and look to the future, it’s essential to understand the emerging trends in store checkouts. Few retailers realize the impact the checkout experience can have on their profits. With just five changes, you can future-proof your store’s checkout experience.
Equip Your Store to Accommodate Different Forms of Payments
Perhaps the most significant move you can make to speed up the checkout process is accommodating various payment, shopping, and checkout methods. Today, consumers pay with more than just cash, debit, or credit card. With virtual wallets and in-store fulfillment, along with new payment and checkout options, your store can accommodate your customers.
Mobile Pay
Armed with smartphones, the number of people who use mobile payment methods is rising. According to Mobile Payments World, mobile pay is expected to be used by more than 56% of the consumer population. Accepting mobile payments accommodates shoppers used to paying this way, but you can also capture sales when customers forget their wallets at home or have a card that gets declined.
Here are some mobile pay or virtual wallets to consider for your store:
- Apple Pay.
- Google Pay.
- PayPal.
- Samsung Pay.
Many banks have their version of a virtual wallet. Some major retailers have even created mobile apps that allow shoppers to purchase their orders from their phones.
Offer Shoppers a Faster Checkout Experience
Contactless Readers
Over half of Americans use contactless payment methods. Contactless card reader technology has been around for a while, but they’ve recently become popular in retail stores and fast-food restaurants. Many major credit card companies have adopted the tap-and-pay technology, and it’s a much quicker option than the chip reader or swipe option.
Wireless Terminals
Providing sales associates with wireless payment terminals helps keep the checkout process moving quickly and painlessly. It also means that customers can check out anywhere in the store, eliminating lines and creating a more seamless experience. If the store is bustling, managers can add wireless payment terminals to shorten check-out lines.
Self Checkout
Being able to check yourself out at a store empowers many shoppers. It’s significantly faster for your customers and requires less attention from employees, so they can focus on converting in-store shoppers that are browsing. 60% of consumers would prefer to use a self-checkout station than be checked out by a store associate.
Self-checkout was initially a grocery store idea, but other retailers have now adopted the checkout option too. Restaurants have incorporated self-ordering and payment kiosks. Warehouse Clubs have a self-checkout app that customers can use to scan and pay for items.
Buy Online, Pick Up in the Store (BOPIS)
65% of retailers have implemented BOPIS, also known as curbside pickup, and most customers have no intention of going back to the way they shopped pre-pandemic. BOPIS dramatically decreases checkout time because customers just come to the store to a designated spot and pick up their purchases.
Retailers can streamline the BOPIS process by directing it to a different line or register.
Allowing for BOPIS orders can help retail stores quicken the checkout process and simultaneously increase sales.
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)
“Buy now, pay later” or After pay is the newest craze in retail checkout technology. During the 2020 holidays, 44% of customers said BNPL would be important in determining how much they spend. Platforms like Affirm, Afterpay, and Klarna are easy to integrate into your online checkout. And it’s getting easier to implement them into physical stores as well.
Use POS Integrated Payments
Integrating your point-of-sale system with your payment processor eliminates the need to key in transaction data at checkout manually. When your POS and payments solutions are tightly connected, your cashiers no longer must enter the sale amount onto your POS. The data flows smoothly from one system to the next, which then streamlines the checkout process.
Integrated payments also minimize human error and confusion, so your team can ring up sales quickly and easily.
Talk to a Credit Card Processing Partner
Finical is a credit card processing company offering must-have payment and processing features plus many added benefits. Finical is compatible with all methods of payment, including all major credit cards, gift cards, mobile pay, virtual wallets, contactless, etc. When you choose to work with Finical as your payment processing partner, we will provide you:
- A free credit card terminal to take payments anywhere and anytime.
- Fast Funding to your business account.
- Encrypted and secure processing of all types of payments.
- 24/7 Customer Service.
- No Long-term contract.
- Transparent fees and pricing.
Learn more about how Finical can boost your business. Contact us for a free consultation.
